Govt re-orders police boss, task force to clear Apapa gridlock

WORRIED by the continued parking of tankers on Apapa roads, the Lagos State government has re-ordered men of the Nigerian police and task force team to restore sanity in the area.

State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, last week, directed the new Commissioner of Police (CP), Ajani Owoseni, to ensure immediate traffic flow, applying the Lagos State Traffic Law 2012.

Ambode, it was gathered, gave the directive following public outcry over the return of stationary fuel tankers after few days of ease.

It would be recalled that the governor, three weeks ago, visited the Apapa corridor and gave orders to the taskforce – a combined team of law enforcement agencies – to quickly end perennial congestion in the axis. The directive brought succour to the residents at least for some days until the tankers returned to the road this week.

It was gathered that the governor was worried at the development, especially in the face of a 24-hour special taskforce deployed to the area.

A senior state officer said: “The return of the tankers to the road was a huge embarrassment to the state government and thus the directive to the CP to immediately address the situation with full enforcement of the law.”

It was also learnt that the fresh traffic situation grew worse in the axis following the change of Commissioner of Police in the state as directed by the Inspector General of Police.

The standby task force, led by Superintendent of Police, Akeem Adedeji, it was gathered, had to retreat in the enforcement of traffic law in order not to incur the wrath of the new CP.

Ambode, therefore, directed the new CP to ensure free flow of traffic in the area within 48 hours and it should be sustained, the source confided.

The task force had seized a few trucks in its early days of operation.

A few policemen were left on the road, who the tanker drivers said assisted them to park on the roads after allegedly collecting bribes from them.

The gridlock, which has become a daily sight on the highway, usually stretches from Tincan Island Port, Apapa to Cele Bus stop, forcing motorists and other road users to be stranded, even as vehicular and commercial activities along the axis have been suspended.

Also Ambode, who, last week, met with tank farm owners in Apapa on how to resolve the perennial traffic jam in the area, vowed that the state has the capacity to make all the parties involved to comply with the rule.

He said the state government would take a second look at the truck park at Orile with a view to expanding it to have the capacity to accommodate 1,000 trucks.