Apapa gridlocks: Taskforce suffers reversal as trucks take over roads, bridges

Articulated trucks are back on the Apapa-Oshodi highway, reversing efforts by the Presidential Taskforce on the clearing of the gridlock to bring sanity to the roads.

The Taskforce swung into action on Saturday after expiration of the 72 hours order by President Muhammadu Buhari for the trucks to move out or be impounded.

It has two weeks to clear the ports and its access roads of trucks and articulated vehicles.

Under the order, which equally set out the mandates of the Taskforce, any truck that defied the order risks being permanently impounded and can only be released on the order of Mr President consequent upon the fulfillment of the extant traffic regulations of the state.

Among other regulations, drivers of such trucks would have to be subjected to psychiatric test and certificate from the Lagos State Drivers Institute after a retraining session.

The Vice Chairman of the taskforce Kayode Opeifa was unavailable for comments as at press time.

It will be recalled that the exercise had recorded some successes up till Tuesday.

From Sanya Bus Stop to Mile 2 was free of truck obstruction on Monday, restricting the trucks menace to begin from Coconut Bus Stop to Tin Can.

The two Tin Can gates were blocked while access from Second gate to Apapa Wharf was cleared as at Tuesday.

The dilapidated state of the road from Coconut and Tin Can had been said to be responsible for the slow pace of work on the axis.

READ ALSO: Apapa gridlocks will soon be over, FRSC assures

There was appreciable clean up at the Western Avenue, which cleared all the trucks that hitherto parked up to Onipanu off the road.

But as at Thursday, the trucks had over run Ijora road and bridges.

They started spilling backwards to Western Avenue via Costain Bridge and road.

The Taskforce had insisted that 54 private parks had been approved by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) where these buses are to park pending their being called up to either drop their containers or cargo or pick imports at the ports.

Besides the parks, the NPA also opened up the Lillypond Terminal for use while the Customs were directed to collapse their various checkpoints to remove the bottleneck identified as responsible for the slowdown and traffic congestion.