NPA Plans Lagos, Police Partnership To Tackle Truckers’ Challenges

The Nigerian Ports Authority said it was planning to partner with the Lagos State Government and the police to address some of the challenges facing the trucking industry.

This is coming days after truckers threatened to withdraw their services over constant extortions on the port access roads.

The Managing Director of NPA, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, after meeting with a group of trucking unions and associations under the auspices of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners in Lagos.

Dantsoho, who was represented at the event by the Executive Director of Marine & Operations, Engr. Olalekan Badmus, said trucking was a critical aspect of maritime logistics.

We would work with the Lagos State Government and the police high command to urgently address your concerns and prevent any down tool by a critical aspect of the port logistics value chain that the maritime trucking community constitutes. The national economy cannot afford any shutdown at this time,” he said.

The NPA boss used the meeting to urge the truckers to shelve the planned strike.

He said that the meeting culminated in the signing of a communiqué addressing the truckers’ grievances and the subsequent suspension of planned strike action.

Recall that a group of trucking unions and associations under the auspices of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners had issued an ultimatum to stop service to the maritime industry over widespread cases of extortion and attacks on truckers by hoodlums and miscreants.

The meeting had in attendance, the Special Adviser on Transportation to the Lagos State Governor, Sola Giwa; the Lagos commissioner of police; the port authority police command; the National President of AMATO, Remi Ogungbemi; the General Manager of LASTMA, Mr Bakare Olalekan; Chairperson of the Corporate Fleet Truck Owners Association, Mrs Folake George; the Chairman Lagos State Truck & Cargo Operators’ Committee, Lukman Shittu; among others.