Seeking ways to end the worsening Lagos
traffic jam, stakeholders at an emergency meeting, Wednesday, agreed to
free roads and bridges being currently occupied by petroleum tankers
and trucks in an anticipated relief to the people and the much bashed
economy.
Lagos is said to be losing over N50
billion annually to traffic jam. In the last three weeks or thereabout,
parts of the state especially Apapa and environs had remained locked
down as fuel shortage, perhaps the worst in the life of the
out-going President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, continues.
The situation has thrown up serious
security challenge as motorists and commuters are now being robbed at
will in traffic jams, with Bolaji Dada, the executive secretary of Apapa
local government, calling for the intervention of the police and other
security agencies.
Indeed, the hope of any sooner break
from the fuel scarcity dimmed on Wednesday, with major marketers under
the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria
(MOMAN) insisting that the Federal Government still owed them a balance
of N200 billion from oil subsidy, claiming they currently have no
financial wherewithal to import product into the country unless the debt
is settled.
Obafemi Olawore, the executive secretary
of MOMAN, who was cornered after the stakeholders’ meeting which held
in Ikeja, confirmed that no Federal Government official was talking to
them on how to settle the debt, a situation he said was frustrating
their business.
“As we speak nobody from the government is talking to us.”
He also faulted claim by the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that there was fuel enough for
local consumption, saying, “Let the NNPC point to a depot where it
has enough fuel. Truth is there is no fuel to lift,” he said.
Around Apapa, the much desired relief
from the gridlock is not likely to come before this weekend. Commuters,
motorists, residents and businesses would live with the current burden
till next week.
Although the Lagos State government at
the stakeholders agreed to a 48-hour ultimatum to the petroleum tanker
and truck drivers to remove their vehicles from the roads and bridges,
actual enforcement of the ultimatum which expires midnight of Friday
(tomorrow), would begin on Sunday.
Kayode Opeifa, the Lagos State
commissioner for transportation, who chaired the meeting said law
enforcement agencies, police, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the
Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) would start with
persuasion and would only begin towing the trucks and
arresting recalcitrant drivers with effect from Sunday.
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