After another joint security meeting at the Command Officers Mess, Onikan, Lagos, on the intractable traffic snarl at the Apapa Port and its environs weekend, security chiefs in Lagos State resolved that the problem should be prevented from resulting into a breakdown of law and order in any part of the state.
The meeting was the second within four days by the security chiefs in the state as trucks, mostly container trailers and fuel tankers, formed kilometres of queues along the two routes of the Apapa port-Ijora-Ikorodu Road and Tin Can Island port-Mile 2-Oshodi expressway, causing traffic jams in which vehicles are stuck for many hours daily.
The latest meeting was convened by the General Officer Commanding, 81 Division, Nigerian Army, Major-General Enobong Udoh. Also at the meeting were the Flag Officer, Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Sylvanus Abbah; and Air Force Commanding, Logistics Command, Nnamdi Ekeh, as well as top officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA), Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Civil Defence and Fire Service.
They all feared that the current chaotic traffic situation, if it remained unchecked, portend great danger as even now, hoodlums brazenly rob commuters in traffic.
The Nigerian Navy had been the arrowhead of traffic management in and around the port city of Apapa, but it recently withdrew its men from the road as a result of some truck drivers’ attack on its men. It has, however, been involved in the latest round of efforts to bring sanity back to the road.
At the meeting, the security heads said that they should declare zero tolerance on all acts of inter-service/inter-agency rivalries, wrangling, bickering, animosities, brawls and violent confrontations, noting that these were some of the factors that had contributed to the difficult resolution of the problem.
Maj Gen Udoh remarked that the press and social media had been awash with stories of how lower rank personnel engaged one another in physical combats, saying this latest platform would change the story for a better one.
“In the short term, we may not be able to guarantee that such isolated issues will no longer arise, but if and when they do, we must ensure that such issues are expeditiously investigated. Anyone found culpable will be tried and punished adequately to serve as a deterrent to similar occurrences in the future.
“I, therefore, implore all of us to hurriedly take this message of good inter-service/inter-agency synergy, cooperation and collaboration down to the very last man within our rank and file. This platform is to promote inter-service synergy, cooperation and collaboration among that region, as well as give back-ups where necessary,” he said.
