Hon Emmanuel Jime
ES/CEO, Shippers’ Council

The Nigerian shippers’ Council, NSC,  as lead agency of the Presidential Ports Standing Task Team, PSTT, has held an appraisal meeting with members of the team and maritime stakeholders to ascertain progress made by the Team, look at issues and challenges affecting the work of the team and seek solutions for implementation of the Ease of Doing Business,   EoDB, in the ports.

Welcoming stakeholders to the meeting held at the Boardroom of the Council,  the Executive Secretary of the Council, Hon. Emmanuel  Jime said the review is necessitated by the need to increase port efficiency and ensure free flow of traffic in all port access roads within and around Apapa.

The ES with members of the PSTT during an inspection tour of port access roads in Lagos

According to him “Operation free the port corridor is essentially intended to rid the ports of inefficiencies and corrupt practices to enhance the ease of doing business in the ports. The first phase of the operation was launched to clear the port access road from Apapa to Ijora. This was a huge success as observed by Maritime stakeholders and all those who use the road”.

“The success of that operation led to the launch of the second phase on the 24th of June 2022 to clear the route from the Apapa Port complex gate to Tin Can, coconut, Mile 2, Orile, Ijora down to Apapa, a distance of about 15.6 km”. This area was littered with chanties and trucks parked indiscriminately, thereby posing untold hardship to commuters and creating opportunities for extortion and other corrupt practices for state and non-state actors” Jime said

On why the Council called the meeting with PSTT and maritime stakeholders Jime said “The purpose of this gathering is to rub minds, share ideas and provide feedbacks on the sustainability of what has been achieved so far.  I must express our gratitude to the Nigeria Custom Service, the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, DSS,  the Lagos State government, the  Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC and   all those who have worked with us to achieve what has been achieved so far”

The Executive Secretary of the Council therefore charged members of the team not to relent but work harder to achieve the objectives of the presidential directive on the ease of doing business.

Giving an update on operations of the PSTT, Mr. Moses Fadipe, chairman of the team in a video presentation showed how much shanties and encumbrances the team has been able to remove to create a motorable corridor for trucks and vehicles.

“We have made tremendous progress in restoring order on port access roads. Shop owners and all those who have structures on the right of way of motorists were given prior notice to vacate such areas.  While many of such illegal structure owners complied with notices we served them, there were those who did not comply and we had to move in to enforce the presidential directive to achieve our mandate”.

Narrating the challenges faced by members of the team, Fadipe bemoaned the actions of state actors (consisting of federal and state agencies and their agents and the confusion caused by and non-state actors such as touts and troublemakers as obstacles to effective operations of the PSTT

“We have been attacked physically on several occasions by non-state actors who are bent on having a place along the port corridor.  One of our members has been seriously injured and hospitalized for weeks but he is recovering. We need the cooperation and support of all maritime stakeholders to succeed in our work to restore order and efficiency in the ports”, Fadipe said.

With contributions and observations by members of the team on how to strengthen the PSTT, Chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners, AMATO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, commended the Team for a job well done.

“This is the only Task Team that has shown seriousness and worked very hard to achieve sanity on the roads in Apapa, I salute the team. However, it is sad to note that the extortionists who have taken our trucks as their cocoa farm are creeping back to the roads, I call on the PSTT to be vigilant to avoid a return to the unfortunate gridlocks we suffered”, Ogungbemi appealed.

The NSC Boss thereafter handed over working kits consisting of rain coats and boots to members of the Task Team to enhance their work.

The Nigerian shippers’ Council, NSC,  as lead agency of the Presidential Ports Standing Task Team, PSTT, has held an appraisal meeting with members of the team and maritime stakeholders to ascertain progress made by the Team, look at issues and challenges affecting the work of the team and seek solutions for implementation of the Ease of Doing Business,   EoDB, in the ports.

Welcoming stakeholders to the meeting held at the Boardroom of the Council,  the Executive Secretary of the Council, Hon. Emmanuel  Jime said the review is necessitated by the need to increase port efficiency and ensure free flow of traffic in all port access roads within and around Apapa.

According to him “Operation free the port corridor is essentially intended to rid the ports of inefficiencies and corrupt practices to enhance the ease of doing business in the ports. The first phase of the operation was launched to clear the port access road from Apapa to Ijora. This was a huge success as observed by Maritime stakeholders and all those who use the road”.

“The success of that operation led to the launch of the second phase on the 24th of June 2022 to clear the route from the Apapa Port complex gate to Tin Can, coconut, Mile 2, Orile, Ijora down to Apapa, a distance of about 15.6 km”.

“This area was littered with chanties and trucks parked indiscriminately, thereby posing untold hardship to commuters and creating opportunities for extortion and other corrupt practices for state and non-state actors” Jime said

On why the Council called the meeting with PSTT and maritime stakeholders Jime said “The purpose of this gathering is to rub minds, share ideas and provide feedbacks on the sustainability of what has been achieved so far.  I must express our gratitude to the Nigeria Custom Service, the Nigeria Police, the Department of State Services, DSS,  the Lagos State government, the  Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC and   all those who have worked with us to achieve what has been achieved so far”

The Executive Secretary of the Council therefore charged members of the team not to relent but work harder to achieve the objectives of the presidential directive on the ease of doing business.

Giving an update on operations of the PSTT, Mr. Moses Fadipe, chairman of the team in a video presentation showed how much shanties and encumbrances the team has been able to remove to create a motorable corridor for trucks and vehicles.

“We have made tremendous progress in restoring order on port access roads. Shop owners and all those who have structures on the right of way of motorists were given prior notice to vacate such areas.  While many of such illegal structure owners complied with notices we served them, there were those who did not comply and we had to move in to enforce the presidential directive to achieve our mandate”.

Narrating the challenges faced by members of the team, Fadipe bemoaned the actions of state actors (consisting of federal and state agencies and their agents and the confusion caused by and non-state actors such as touts and troublemakers as obstacles to effective operations of the PSTT

“We have been attacked physically on several occasions by non-state actors who are bent on having a place along the port corridor.  One of our members has been seriously injured and hospitalized for weeks but he is recovering. We need the cooperation and support of all maritime stakeholders to succeed in our work to restore order and efficiency in the ports”, Fadipe said.

With contributions and observations by members of the team on how to strengthen the PSTT, Chairman, Association of Maritime Truck Owners, AMATO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, commended the Team for a job well done.

“This is the only Task Team that has shown seriousness and worked very hard to achieve sanity on the roads in Apapa, I salute the team. However, it is sad to note that the extortionists who have taken our trucks as their cocoa farm are creeping back to the roads, I call on the PSTT to be vigilant to avoid a return to the unfortunate gridlocks we suffered”, Ogungbemi appealed.

The NSC Boss thereafter handed over working kits consisting of rain coats and boots to members of the Task Team to enhance their work.