Efforts by the Presidential panel headed by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo to clear roads leading in and out of Apapa ports in Lagos of gridlock has been frustrated by soldiers and touts.
The extortionists reportedly make about N1m everyday, using touts to collect bribes from desperate truck drivers, who try to use a section of the road not meant for them to access the seaports and sometimes block the port road with their vehicles after the soldiers have given them the right of way.
But the Executive Vice-Chairman of the task force, Kayode Opeifa, said the group had reduced the rate of extortion in the area considerably with the help of the Apapa Local Government, the police and the military authorities.
Opeifa said, “Anyone who claims to be military personnel found extorting in that area is impersonating. They claim to be military personnel in order to perpetuate their act of extortion. They don’t control traffic.
“Beneficiaries of the old order do not want to give up. They try to short-change the system by coming out in the dead of the night to perpetuate the act of corruption.”
The Navy Director of Information, Commodore Suleman Dahun, told one of PUNCH correspondents that the public should come forward with evidence if such existed.
He said, “I have to tell you this; we have complied fully with the Federal Government’s directive that we should withdraw from traffic management in the Apapa area. It (bribery) is not true and if you have evidence of our boys engaging in any illegal activity, please forward it to us. It is not good for anyone to wake up and concoct lies against the Navy.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari in May had constituted the panel and gave the truckers, constituting a nuisance on that axis, a 72-hour ultimatum to vacate the roads. After the expiration of the 72-hour ultimatum, the President gave the task force two additional weeks to sanitise the area.
