Princess Zahra Audu Storms Apapa Port, Dismantles Illegal Checkpoints as Extorting Officials Flee

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Director-General of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), Princess Zahra Mustapha Audu, on Thursday stormed the Lagos ports complex to dismantle illegal checkpoints and extortion hotspots that have long driven up the cost of doing business in Nigeria.

The checkpoints, scattered across key access routes into the Apapa port corridor, had over time become revenue streams for corrupt port officials and security operatives who routinely extorted truck drivers of hundreds of thousands of naira.

The raid sent several of the operatives fleeing, abandoning their chairs and umbrellas at various posts.
The PEBEC DG emboldened truck drivers that henceforth, whenever they are accosted on the roads to pay any illegal money, they should raise an alarm.

Princess Zahra was accompanied by a multi-agency team comprising the Nigerian Police, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA).

Among the locations cleared during the operation were illegal checkpoints on top of and beneath the Liverpool Bridge, the second gate at the Terminal International Container Terminal (TICT), the approach to TICT’s computer facility, and a customs-occupied container whose operations were suspended on the spot. Extortion points at PTML and Ports & Cargo terminals were similarly dismantled.

In the wider Apapa corridor, checkpoints at NAGAFF Junction, ETISALAT and Fidelity roundabouts were taken down, while extortion of truckers at other approved checkpoints across the axis was banned outright.

The PEBEC DG also issued a stern warning against the indiscriminate parking of trucks on port access roads, directing drivers and fleet owners to comply with the new order or face sanctions.