In its continued drive towards building on the gains of its recent multi-pronged strategy to clear the access roads leading to the Apapa and TinCan Ports, and elevate the status of the roads to international standards, NPA managing Director, Mohammed Bello-Koko on Monday, led his team to assess progress made so far and take the process to the next phase.

In a post on its Facebook Page, NPA said “As a measure of consolidating the gains recorded in the clearance of illegal check/extortion points and shanties resulting in a traffic gridlock on the Tincan Island Port access road, the Managing Director, @MohdBelloKoko resumes work on Monday, March 25th on the Port access road.”

BRANDPOWER reports that speaking on the sidelines of the unscheduled spot check, Mohammed Bello Koko said “Our zero tolerance for all forms of impediments to the free flow of traffic is no fluke, and we are poised to consolidate the gains we have recorded first in Apapa and now Tincan. We are grateful to the Honourable Minister of Marine & Blue Economy His Excellency, @GboyegaOyetola (CON) and the Lagos State Governor for the tremendous support we have received in this regard”.

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Bello Koko opined further, that “Ports access roads are international corridors, which means traffic gridlock along such sensitive road networks apart from negating port productivity is an international embarrassment that requires the synergy of all stakeholders to tackle sustainably. Although the causes of the gridlock are rooted in factors external to NPA, we have a duty as the gateway to the national economy to take the front-line role in tackling this menace.”

On the menace of refuse debris blocking the drainages, Bello Koko said “Although I have directed our relevant in-house department to commence desilting of the drainages and clearance of the refuse, we will enlist the cooperation and intensify synergy with Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and the Federal Ministry of Works under whose purview waste and road management resides to arrest the ugly trend”.

It will be recalled that the Mohammed Bello Koko-led management of NPA had recently received the commendation of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) for clearing the perennial traffic gridlock that hitherto made ingress and egress of Lagos Ports of Apapa and Tincan difficult.

recalls that earlier in February, NPA bursted a syndicate sabotaging the E-call up system, also known as ‘Eto’ with 413 fake number plates.

The E-call up system was introduced by NPA in February 2021 for trucks at the Lagos Ports, to end the gridlock witnessed on the port roads. The e-call up system was launched alongside an app called Eto, which truckers are expected to use to book turns to enter the Ports but was deliberately sabotaged by a syndicate.

“In a move geared towards frontally tackling the activities of unpatriotic elements sabotaging NPA’s electronic truck traffic management (e-Call Up) system also know as Eto, the Authority’s officials and security agents undertook a spot check of the MPS Pregate where a mind boggling discovery of 249 fake vehicle plate numbers and 149 units of Minimum Safety Standard (MSS) stickers were discovered.

“Further checks of the terminal led to a discovery of another 164 pieces of vehicle number plates and 133 pieces of MSS Stickers that are not fixed on any truck in readiness to be deployed for proxy booking.”