Comrade Kayode Opeifa, lately former Executive Vice Chairman Presidential Task Team on the Restoration of Law and Order in Apapa (PTT-RLO), who recently bagged a Ph.D in Transportation and Logistics Management from the Lagos State University School of Transportation (LASU-SoT) believed that with the shame of the nation wiped away from Apapa, and the glory gradually returning, it is time to take a bow and move on with his life. He assured that Apapa would never slip back to that era of infamy if all stakeholders are ready to do what is right and the regulators willing to enforce the laws without fear or favour. He spoke with SUNRISE NEWS on what he and his team went through to restore sanity in Apapa and how to sustain the gains. He called on the Federal Government to accord due recognition or give national awards to those unsung operatives who lost their lives and those who lost their limbs in bringing the Apapa hoodlums to their knees. Excepts:
About 19 months ago, the presidency established the task team to restore law and order at Apapa. How will you describe the journey in the last 20 months?
Let me start by saying that the task team was meant to be an ad-hoc solution or measure to restore law and order, pending the actualization of many other issues, ranging from rehabilitation of roads, improved port operations which includes the introduction of electronic call up system, introduction of scanners for cargo clearance and so many other things that are ports related and identified by stakeholders over a long period of time. Also note that the task force which we changed o task team was because we believed the Apapa traffic management situation does not need a task force, but a team to restore law and order. We came in on May 22, and by the end of August 2019, we had achieved all our intended purposes. It took us 60 days to restore law and order both on Apapa Wharf Road, the Lagos Badagry Express road, from Iganmu down to Mile 2 and Mile 2 down to Tin can gate, Tin can gate down to Apapa port gate and Apapa Port gate down to Eko Bridge, which is the Maritime logistics loop. We restored law and order within the first two months, by the end of July and by August, we have accomplished all other things we are to do. But we were not allowed to leave. The initial time was two weeks, which ws later extended to two months and later extended to until the government feels it is time for us to leave. That is to tell you that the government too was comfortable with the reports of our activities at Apapa. Also by June 11, 2019, we presented an interim report which was accepted by all stakeholders present – made up of terminal operators, shipping lines, manufacturing companies, truckers, residents, GRA residents were represented by their leaders, the media, the Police, the CG Customs was represented, FRSC Corps Marshal, everybody was there. They all agreed that the face of Apapa is changing. Again, in August 2019, we presented another report which we termed exit, but we were not allowed to exit, we were asked to wait until a time all stakeholders are ready to take ownership. That was before Lagos State government appointed new executives. However, we also presented another report on November 15, where all stakeholders were again present and that was where we reported that stakeholders were not taking ownership. Our system as designed, worked perfectly from May to the middle of October when some stakeholders motivated by corruption fight back and some interests started accusing us of depriving them of their means of livelihood and they would not allow us to work beyond December. That was when you started seeing stories of extortion, stories of encroaching on port operations, we have overstayed our tenure, etc. Down the lane, from January, February last year, we are supposed to have effectively hands off, there was high engagement involving the Lagos State Government at that time, but there came COVID-19 and the lockdown. On October 7, a final report was requested. Earlier on August 12, there was a meeting of all the principal stakeholders where the Vice President, prof Yemi Osinbajo was present to chair the meeting, the Minister for Transportation Mr Rotimi Amaechi was there, the Minister for Works, Mr Babatunde Fashola, MD NPA, Executive Secretary Nigeria Shippers Council, CG Customs, FRSC Corps Marshal, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, SSA Media to the President, and Secretary to NPEDEC were all present and we presented a report where we called the attention of the national government that the stakeholders are no longer cooperating and there is urgent need for all the stakeholders to take ownership, that we want to leave. That was when the issue of unregulated barging on Marina was discussed and the minister for Transport and the governor of Lagos were mandated to look into it and eventually, we saw that they both came out and had that place cleaned up. As at that moment, Lillypond was no longer in operation, the nominated parks were no longer in use and the call up system was no longer being followed and we felt those are not within our purview. We are to design and deploy a logistics masterplan, we have done that, it is left for those who are supposed to manage to step up their game. On October 7, we represented an exit report which was initially presented in August, and it was accepted and we were asked to hand over to the Lagos State Government as requested by our report. That operation commenced on November 8 and we concluded on December 29. That is how the journey has been. So far, we have restored law and order, on all roads where we are supposed to remove stationary trucks, as I am speaking to you, I can say categorically, there are no stationary trucks on any roads in and around Apapa or on all roads leading to the ports. Except those occasioned by the construction of the road, along Mile 2 and Sunrise. Also, we have developed and deployed a traffic management system which can remove and gridlock or any congestion within two hours, even when there is major rescue, not more than six hours. That is one of our mandates. The third is the empty container return handling policy. We have developed one, working with NPA, who has that responsibility to do it and that we have handed over and that is what require that all shipping lines, must be the ones to receive containers at their holding bays, that individuals should not bring containers to the ports but to the holding bays, and once they take it to the holding bay, the demurrage on it must stop contrary to what is currently operating where individuals are still bringing containers to the ports and they are made to paying N20,000 from N14,000 to shipping lines a situation which is like a double jeopardy. They lose their deposit, they also pay a penalty. Those are all that we were asked to do and we have delivered on them and when we presented our report, all stakeholders acknowledged and commended the efforts. That was as at October 7, and I have drone pictures of Apapa as at October 2, to show you the situation has been brought under control, even though Lillypond was not in operation from April 2020, even though electronic call up system that was to be introduced by NPA since August 2020 is yet to be deployed, though we learnt that it has now been procured and we must commend NPA and urge them to start the introduction any moment from now. Even though the nominated parks where we have kept the trucks to stay off the roads were no longer being used, even though traffic on the Third Mainland Bridge was diverted, to Eko Bridge which was a major logistics corridor, even though Marine Bridge was closed down for over months, even though the Lagos Badagry Expressway construction began and is still ongoing, we maintained law and order and we ensured that there was no gridlock. I want to say that we have delivered on our mandate to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.
How has the issue of corruption fight back impacted on the smooth operation and restoration of law and order in Apapa?
Prior to the assignment, don’t forget I worked in Apapa as Special Adviser to the government on Transportation under Governor Fashola and I also worked as Commissioner, the problem we used to have then were the tankers whenever there is going to be fuel scarcity. This forced the government to declare a state of emergency and between 2011 and 2013, we were able to solve all issues relating to Apapa and between NPA, NNPC, PPMC, a lot of improvements were done and scarcity became a thing of the past. There was calm in Apapa up until 2016, when a LASTMA officer was stoned to death. After that incident, law and order broke down, nobody was manning the roads and managing the traffic and the truck menace came. This was what brought in the issue of extortion. People started paying to find access into the ports, the Navy came in the Police and all manners of the Task Force were formed to resolve the problem. So we can safely say that extortion fueled the traffic management crisis in Apapa. Though removal of extortion was not part of our mandate, but based on our previous study of Apapa, we included it that we must remove the prospect for extortion – how, by restoring law and order, removal of all parking trucks around the port, keep all trucks at nominated parks, make call up system that is transparent and that is reliable and ensure that Lillypond works so that there is a transit park from where trucks are called up to proceed to the port. Ensure that trucks coming from outside Lagos, have a place they can stay once they come inside Lagos, and also ensure that it is first come first served. We achieved this perfectly within two months and all stakeholders agreed to the principles as of May 25th, the meeting was held at LMC, inside the port. Where all the port managers, traffic managers, shipping companies, terminal operators, all truckers were present, that meeting adopted our traffic management process with minor adjustments, the problem was containerized trucks returning. If they don’t get into the ports within certain days they pay between N14,000 to N20,000, so they would rather pay money to anybody to get them into the port. Once you give them a system that assures them that they would not be fined for lateness, sanity would be restored, so we put this up. Everybody in this country is a witness. The traffic used to get to Maryland on Ikorodu road, it used to get to Oshodi on Oshodi-Apapa road, and it used to get to Mile 2 on the Badagry axis. Within two months we took that out everybody was happy and the prospect for extortion was completely knocked out. However those who are benefiting from the extortion could not contain it, they came to us to relax the system, we refused, so they resorted to blackmail and to do this they approached the media and started accusing us of collecting money. Infact they even said the head of the enforcement team has a bank in Yaba, where they were making N300 Million a day and once you fly that, all those who are on queue would rush believing that with a token they would enter. That was the lie they were peddling and the media fell for it and I went ahead to challenge the media, I urged them to stop reporting false stories. I asked them to tell those who are feeding them those stories to bring proof, none came up with any. Any day they do that, we see a surge and containers start queuing up at night, believing that if they can pay their way they would pass. The night was meant for manufacturing and flat beds working for manufacturing except for SIFAX which is a bonded terminal that has to move containers from Ijora to Tincan port that was the reason they were operating. It will interest you to know that these corruption fight back people do not have trucks. They are middle men. You can confirm this if you talk to the authentic truckers. The PTT does not control the call up system, we only developed it and it is hinged upon Lillypond and the nominated parks which are under the control of the NPA. So how they find their way, I don’t know but the first six months everything worked perfectly, but after that there was a fight when the Lagos State Task Force came to clear and take ownership of the place, they were attacked, and in the process of repelling the attack, some of the hoodlums ran into Lillypond and in the process somebody died. The activities at Lillypond was therefore scaled down, because the NPA had to investigate and all that, so things slowed down, but by December, the stakeholders meeting was called again, we initiated it with the Shippers Council and the stakeholders agreed that Lillypond must return to operation, by April again, Lillypond stopped working and we were told that NPA has handed Lillypond over to the electronic call up concessionaire. Though it was a good development, I don’t think they should have completely shut the place down. Until the electronic comes up the manual ought to be allowed to continue to work because it is working. Although there is also the rail construction which is also passing through Lillypond so there are so many issues really, but I believe that Lillypond and the nominated parks should have been allowed to continue operation. All these were as a result of those behind the corruption at Apapa. They kept writing petitions to everybody that their issues are not being attended and you know it is natural for any responsible organisation to want to investigate, this slows down the traffic management system. It was at this point that I reported back to the presidency that the PTT was no longer enjoying the confidence and cooperation of stakeholders and that it is better we were dissolved. These people are known, they are not unknown, they are known people. They claimed to be owners of trucks, they claimed to be members of truck owners organisations but they don’t have trucks, they misinform the media by pretending to the media that they are concerned stakeholders and they will show passion. I have had opportunities to engage them, they have also maligned my person, but we remained focused. This corruption fight back is also responsible for all the negative stories coming out of Apapa. Before COVID 19, there was no single problem with any road entering Tincan port. But these people came again to say some people are making a huge amount of money. Let me share an example, a member of the House of Representatives informed me that the police took N2 million from his Manager. We got the manager and when I confronted him with the head of the export group, Mr Bunmi Olumekan, the man said he paid N200,000 per container to a policeman from the task team who facilitated the deal. But when I asked further, the man said he didn’t pay any policeman to a member of the export group who is a member who already has a pass from the export group. This pass is given free, but you pay the union dues to the export group, which the PTT are not involved with or in support of, though I am not against the unions collecting their dues. This guy confirmed that it was because he could not get that pass that he went and bought from somebody who had the pass and bought for N200,000 each and there was no policeman involved. I asked them to go and sort themselves out with your boss, but I couldn’t get the lawmaker back on the phone when the manager was with me to formally report the transaction and exonerate the police. I know of one of those people who I was told collected 10 tickets and disposed of it for N150,000 each. The tickets encourage corruption, but like I said PTT is not in charge. They are fighting us back because when law and order is restored, they cannot survive. That’s on the trucking side, there are also extortionists who exaggerate the situation just to get a little more from the fleet owners and employers. But behind all these what I discovered is that extortion is a matter of demand and supply and it is speculative. Immediately after EndSARS, cost of moving containers jumped to N1.4 million to N1.4mmillion but when shipper’s council moved into Tincan to look into the issue, they discovered that prices started falling immediately, as at this morning, it has dropped to N800,000. These people are not unknown to the stakeholders. As a task team, we have reported those we can report. Each stakeholder knows who they are. You have people who are not supposed to be in the port area operating in the corridor, we have removed and reported them, but the stakeholders must be determined to stamp them out. After the EndSARS, they capitalised on the temporary loss of order and they attacked TinCan. Tincan used to be a better port in terms of truck throughput. We don’t control how customs clears goods customs is now introducing scanners, nobody does that before the Buhari government. When this government came, NPA has improved on port efficiency, customs have also improved on their efficiency, even though it may not be at the pace where you expected. The roads are good now than when this government came in, for your information Wharf road is completed under this government, Creek road is completed, from Apapa Port to Tincan port is almost 90 percent completed, TinCan Port to Sunrise, Outbound, three lanes almost completed, outbound, three lanes almost completed, remaining the service lanes, Liverpool is 99 percent completed, these are the roads we say are causing the traffic crisis, so there is no problem with the roads. There are better roads in Apapa now than when the Task Team came, we also managed the construction time which is not our job, if not for u, he would not be able to achieve the success he has recorded, to God be all the glory. The men worked assiduously, but until the media confronted them like the governor of Lagos has done, to come and prove, they would continue to blackmail. We are not saying there have not been proven instances, I have had instances where I asked the Commander of FRSC to remove one of his officers just one. I have had instances to tell LASTMA to change all officers who started with us and are working with the old system and when they told me some are exceptional I asked them to leave those who are exceptionally good. The CP Lagos, who was CP Ports as at that time doesn’t allow many of the policemen you see to spend two months, there was a time we changed the entire team. There are three enforcement agencies – LASTMA, Police and FRSC. They are controlled by their organisations. LASTMA is by their mandate to manage traffic, Police to ensure security for LASTMA and support LASTMA in restoring law and order, the FRSC to support the enforcement of road worthiness and traffic. So when you see the police involved it was because it was becoming difficult. The first month we started a lady, was killed, three or four months after a police officer was crushed to death, within the same period, two police officers had their legs crushed, less than six months another LASTMA officer was stoned, he died, so you can see the fear factor, I was stoned myself, it was a LASTMA officer who rescued me, he had to run after the hoodlums grabbed one of them and brought him to us, the rest ran away, the same place a LASTMA officer was stoned to death. That was how tough, so clearing all the hoodlums, even people selling all sorts of drugs were cleared, they will fight back and they sure did. That is why I am appealing, the task team is gone, but the media need to support the stakeholders in restoring sanity in Apapa by stopping to popularize all the negative stories from Apapa. Nobody is asking the media not to write anything, but please talk to the authentic truck owners, not people who have no business being in the place. When you want to clarify issues of cost, talk to the shippers council, they know the cost. I have challenged a group as far back as October 6 that the cost of moving container from Tincan to Ladipo was not more than N500,000, they told me I was wrong, and I called the truckers, they told me I was right, shippers council told me I was right and I took them to the truckers and the trucker challenged them to shown them the invoice of anyone who charges above that, they became jittery. Anyone can confirm, we have reduced the cost of haulage from Apapa port and Tincan port to not less than 40 percent. Am saying it authoritatively and I have told the Lagos Chamber of Commerce the same. There was the case of a publisher in Apapa who paid above N500,000 to move container possibly Tincan to his printing press that was outrageous, the truckers at the meeting said it shouldn’t be more than N250,000, but however, the man paid N570,000 to faceless middlemen. There are people who pray there should be a crisis in Apapa to create avenues for them. That’s why we are saying let the shippers council publish the list of truckers who have a fleet, let’s have their list so that importers and freight forwarders can contact them directly. Also publish the rate, am not supposed to publish the rate. On October 7th the shippers council was mandated to go and publish the rate, not knowing that EndSARS will happen, publish the rate, if you do, it would be difficult for those men to operate above accepted rate.
This thing would fizzle out if the NPA do the following which we have recommended, stop unregulated barging into Tincan port, I would mention their name Josepdam and Five Star, my understanding is that they are not supposed to be containerized terminals but they are receiving containers into the port. During that Endsars period they received excess and choked the port. That was what caused the none access into the port access road. There is nothing wrong with the main road, though it was also choked up, but the task team cleared it within seven days. When the port was difficult I told them stop barging regulated, lawful, illegal or legal stop it for now. It helped sanitise the roads. Then there is something they do in the port, stripping. Stripping is desirable, if there are nice places to do it. It means a container belonging to five owners could be shared. What it means is that that container would not come out of the port. There became so many trucks like that and NPA stopped stripping but guess what I learnt they still do it at night. Where they cannot do it at night, they go and do it at Liverpool roundabout. Since Endsars, enforcement has been lax. When NPA has closed up on them and the Task team has closed up on them, they went to the media and started saying 500,000 containers are stranded at the ports. How many containers does NPA handle in a year, about one million, so, how could 500,000 containers have been stranded at the ports? These are issues the media should be interrogating before running to publish. Nobody should say these are happening as a result of the extortion on the roads. It is better we say these are happening as a result of drop in capacity of some or all the stakeholders. Before Endsars nobody is talking about Gate 1 Gate 2. We should be grateful to the Federal Government, we should be grateful to the Ministry of Works and Housing, no trucks should have used those roads except trailers that are exempted, all should have used the trailer transit park. There are things we need to address, manufacturing taking barging should take it to their waterfront, terminal operator taking barging take it to your waterfront, don’t dump on the port common access road, terminal operators efficiency needs to be assessed, let their efficacy be improved so that those ships on the water berth. When all operators obey the rules.
What are the issues with nominated parks?
As far as we know, there are no issues. The nominated parks around Apapa alone can take between 3,000 and 5,000 trucks, park is not the issue. The issues in Apapa are the terminal operators, port efficiency, optimization of the capacity especially of cargo clearance, which customs is dealing with, they have issues with the fact that there is only one entry into the port, such that if one terminal operator is having issues, it affects others. For instance, if AP Mola which takes containers is having issues, it affects ENL, it affects Dangote. If Dangote trucks come in at night and they couldn’t enter their terminal ENL and APMola too would not be able to function. If the fish containers that operate in the morning cannot approach ENL, it chokes others, because everyone is using one gate into Apapa Port. On the other hand, TinCan port looked ideal, because it has two gates but when the port access roads are blocked so many people are trapped. So though at the Tincan you go through the underground, but if the rods are blocked, it affects movement. Number Two is the shipping lines and the empty container handling system. The shipping lines ought to bring containers back to the ports, not the individuals. Individuals are supposed to take their containers to the holding bay, but the holding bays are not working. Even when some of them take money N100,000 from the owners of the container who has deposited N200,000 or N300,000 for every day the container is stalled on the road, he pays again N14000 to N20,000 depending on the size of the container. Number three is the call up system. There was no call up system, we introduced one, even though it was manual, let it operate pending the introduction of the electronic, we thank God the electronic is about to be flagged off. But pending that time, let the manual continue to work and don’t call trucks above the capacity of the terminal operators. The major terminals that give problems are those dealing with containers. All others don’t have issues, but because of the port common road, there are always issues. Then the issue of demurrage and the issue of charges. Those are port operations, not my business, but as long as people pay penalties they would be rushing and be ready to pay anyone that can promise to get them into Apapa. Then the human factor port automation is coming up, rail is coming up, the roads are being firmed up, once all these come they’ve given the terminal date of March 2021, you will reduce human interaction at the ports. The port itself needs to work on its efficiency and improve its capacity. The rod throughput is what we are asked to help enhance and we have restored law and order, but it will not be complete until electronic call up is installed and deployed. Finally, recently NPA has put up an advert for people who want to operate nominated parks, that means they are operationalising the nominated parks that we used. What this showed is to further confirm that we have delivered on our own mandate. Don’t let people talk about the parks because they are diverting attention. Currently on the Tincan there is a park that can take 1000 trucks but the park has not been put to use because of the road construction, most of the parks that are before Coconut or before Sunrise falls into that category. I am saying to the press there is no more gridlock on Apapa. There may be occasional congestion especially along Mile 2 as a result of so many other reasons but not as a result of enforcement of law and order by security officers.
Let me also put it on record for the about 20 months I served on this assignment, I was not paid a kobo. If I would be paid, I have not been paid. I served this nation free of charge and I took no kobo bribe either directly or indirectly. I say the same for all those who worked with me, especially the security operatives who I believed deserved to be commended. They deserve a national award, all the people who worked on that assignment, but even if you cannot give them awards, write them a letter of commendation. Some of them died, some became disabled for the rest of their lives, some sleep inside vehicles, on the roads, and in trenches.
Can you say that the ports are being overstretched?
No absolutely not, on the contrary, the port have improved on its efficiency since 2015, the congestion we are seeing are as a result of so many other factors, there is massive road construction going on in the port area which has impacted on the export side, translating into a boost of the exportation, there are many other constraint, the issue of absence of empty container policy. Most of the things are exaggerated and that’s why I’m appealing to the media, NACCIMA, LCCI, and the organised private sector to be careful about blank condemnation of what is going on at the port. When this government came, it rehabilitated all the roads within the port access areas on port operations system truck throughput has been enhanced, but for almost four years immediately after Fashola’s tenure, things went bad and we must commend all those who have worked round the clock to put it right. My concern now is that we must not allow those who benefitted from the rot to keep pretending to the public that the rot is not there. Give me six hours, I can clean the entire mess of port road congestion. Give our enforcement- LASTMA, Police and FRSC two hours they can clean any congestion on that road. About early December, there was heavy congestion at Mile 2, trucks should be on that road, that is a truck road. When it was reconstructed in 1976 or so, it was reconstructed because of Tincan Port, when there is rainfall and the Cloverleaf is flooded, small cars will not pass and there would be a blockage. When the Lagos government began the Badagry Express road rehabilitation the thing improved. I have pictures and videos including drone picture of the Apapa road from May 2019 when the PTT started till date. I know the pattern of traffic and that is why I can boldly tell anyone that we no longer have gridlocks on Apapa. This government has done so much to improve on what it was in the past, what remains now is best practices, the stakeholders must ensure that they take responsibility to ensure the people running the ports are doing the right thing. The regulator must have the will to punish any stakeholder who is failing and must take responsibility to explain to the public the exact situation and not allow the media to be deceived by those who have no business in Apapa. For instance before Endsars the price of moving containers from Tincan was less than N300,000, in Apapa, it is N250,000 and Apapa has not changed till today, so why would anyone pay over N1 million to move containers at Tincan?
I’m no longer in Apapa but am still in Nigeria. I still remain in APC, I will continue to defend this government, I will not allow the opposition to misinterpret the narrative or allow those who have benefitted from the rot to continue to be in charge of telling the success story. There are authentic truckers You have NARTO, you have COMTUA, you have COTUAN, you have ACATUA, you have NURTW, you have RTEAN, in the freight forwarding, you have ANALCA, you have NAGAF, there is nothing like COFAMINT, it is fake. These are the ones responsible for the speculative prices at Tincan and the government must take action on them. I worked in Apapa for 20 months, what I thought would be two months. It was in the process my mother died, it was in the course of that that I could not finish my PhD on time, I had to take a three month off Apapa around September to complete my thesis, yet I didn’t meet the graduation. We have sacrificed and we want to tell the public the true story.
The whole of Lagos waterfront is now being taken over by jetties, how many containers can the roads take? And that is another looming danger if the Lagos State government failed to take preemptive steps now. There is a need to regulate and control jetties and barge operations; it is another tickling bomb. How many can the waterways or the rail carry? The most flexible means of transportation remains the road. Trucks going to Ikeja, or to Papalanto or those within the Apapa axis will not use the rail, they will not use the water, but guess what 30 percent of the trucks will still end up in Lagos. What we need is multimodal but intermodal and the federal government is already working on that.