The Presidential Task Team handling the restoration of law and order and improving traffic situation at Apapa had a full day of work at the Apapa Port its access roads on Thursday.
It was the first day this week, no thanks to downpour that has remained inebriated since Monday, messing up the work plan and projections, the Vice Chairman of the team Comrade kayode Opeifa said.
Opeifa disclosed that the inclement weather had prevented the team from proceeding as schedule with their work to clear the road leading to Apapa. He said the worse hit had been the Mile 2 to Apapa axis, which was as a result of the collapse of the road especially from mile 2 into Apapa.
The rain must have put paid to the team rounding off its assignment on Wednesday. Opeifa said when the team’s chairman and Vice President prof Yemi Osinbajo had visited the site last Friday, the team had about 500 metres of palliative work to get to Mile 2 and complete its work.
He disclosed that the team will continue to do its work until it accomplished its mandate.
“But for the rain, the team had planned to achieve a clean road from Mile 2 to Apapa by Wednesday,” he said.
Opeifa said the week-long rain had compounded the work of the team, because much of what they were doing on Thursday when the rain subsided was recovery of trucks which had felled into potholes as a result of the washout of the roads.
He therefore called on the Lagos State Emergency Response Unit (LRU), the Lagos State traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) to support the team to succeed in ensuring free flowing traffic in Apapa and all access roads.
“Rain or no rain, we will continue until we clear the road from the Port to Mile 2. I do not need to assure anybody. Our job is to clean up. We don’t have a deadline, we have a timeline. That is short, long and medium term,” Opeifa said.
He assured that Apapa under the watch of the President Muhammadu Buhari would not slip into abandonment again. “Government is determined to make the institutions of government work.
On plans to sustain the successes of his team anytime they wind up its activity, Opeifa said: “There is a railway plan, there is a deep seaport construction plan, there is infrastructure rehabilitation plan, there is port operation improvement plan, there is the electronic call-up system plan, there is a traffic management and transportation. There are also plans for the establishment of a holding bay, there is a transit park plan, there is the plan to return LASTMA to manage Apapa traffic. All these are plans that are in place to ensure that we do not slide into the bad state that the Apapa area presently is.”
Opeifa said institutions of government will henceforth play their roles individually and collectively to sustain the gains of the Presidential Task team.