In an effort to ease the traffic congestion, the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said on Monday the state government would take over the traffic management from the presidential taskforce in order to restore sanity to the Apapa area of the state.
Sanwo-Olu stated this during a fact-finding visit to the Apapa Ports to ascertain the reason for the incessant congestion in the port area.
He said the government would set up a special team to take over traffic management in the area.
He added that a stakeholders’ meeting involving representatives of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), haulage transport unions, and port operators among others would be convened by the government.
According to him, the meeting will devise strategies on how to solve the protracted traffic gridlock in Apapa and put in place more efficient and effective port operations in the general interest of the public.
The governor decried the indiscipline among port players and promised to tackle the extortionist tendencies displayed by security personnel in Apapa and its environs.
Sanwo-Olu said: “This is not the first time, certainly not the second and in fact this is about the third or the fourth time in my government, that we are trying to see how we can bring an enduring solution to the Apapa gridlock.
“On all of the times we have come, we knew that we are having a road construction, but you can see now that inside Apapa, there is significant progress. A lot of roads have been done.
“Even today which is a public holiday, it is even difficult for us to say that we have achieved a 100 percent traffic flow into Apapa.”
