Why extortion thrives along Nigeria’s ports access roads

Over the years, efforts to rid the nation’s ports access roads off extortionist flashpoints by different Task Force from the Federal and State level have failed, with port users losing millions of Naira to un-receipted charges at different checkpoints. In this report, TOLA ADENUBI examines why the menace has defied all solutions. Excerpts:

Haulage operators carrying out legitimate businesses at the Lagos ports of Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports have continued to lament increasing spate of extortion at various checkpoints manned by security operatives and hoodlums along the ports access roads. Checks by the Nigerian Tribune revealed that the number of checkpoints between Liverpool roundabout and Coconut bus stop along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway increased from four to eight in the last two weeks.

Speaking recently to the Nigerian Tribune, the Vice-Chairman, Dry Cargo Section of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa lamented that, “As I am talking to you now, the checking points where trucks are stopped and monies collected from them are in multiple dimension now. From Liverpool roundabout to Abuja Gate at Tin-Can second gate along the Apapa-Oshodi express road, there are four illegal checkpoints manned by security operatives and officials of the Apapa Local Government.

“From Tin-Can Second Gate, down through the Apapa-Oshodi express road till you get to Mile-2 area, that axis is under hoodlums control. You will see stick wielding hoodlums mounting benches along the road, demanding N2000 or N1000 from each truck that wants to pass through. These checkpoints are up to eight in numbers and whatever you pay there also has no receipt.”

 

Why extortion thrives

Findings by the Nigerian Tribune have however revealed that this illegal business has defied all odds because of the lack of redeployment or transfer of security officials posted to the ports to man traffic operations within the last five to six years.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune on this anomaly, an official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) who wouldn’t want his name in print revealed that some officers have been in their duty posts within the port logistics chain for more than five years now.

“Do you know we have security officials who have been here for moré than five years now? In 2015, I was redeployed from the port to another part of Lagos, around Alausa to be precise. However, when the Vice President came to the ports sometime in 2019, I was among those mobilised to the port area ahead of the Vice Presidents visit. Do you know that some officials that I knew in 2015 were still manning strategic traffic routes along the ports access roads in 2019?

“I want to believe that the trend still persists because from some of my colleagues who now work around the port, they still mention names of security operatives that I knew in 2015 as of today. So tell me, how do you expect an end to extortion along the port access roads?

“Unless there is a total overhaul of security operatives along the port corridor, port users will continue to get extorted because the current people manning that corridor have benefitted from extortion for more than four or five years, and are not ready to stop since their expenses have far outweighed their salaries due to gains made from extortion.

“It is not about redeploying some and leaving others. We are talking of a need for a total overhaul of security operatives along the port corridor. When the Kayode Opeifa-led Task Force was initially introduced in May of 2019, they were succeeding until some of them got corrupted by these officials who have benefited from the confusion over the years.

“At a point, truckers were pointing fingers at the Opeifa Committee anytime issues of extortion are discussed. That Task Force was disbanded in December of 2020 but extortion along the port access roads still persists. Until there is a total overhaul of the security officials at the ports, including those at the Area B Police Headquarters, extortion will continue to thrive at the ports” the LASTMAN official told the Nigerian Tribune exclusively.

 

Npa leads by example

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), in an effort to tackle extortion claims along the ports access roads, redeployed some of its personnel at the Tin Can Island Port and Apapa ports. The agency has also requested that other security agencies of government redeploy their officials at the ports.

Disclosing this while speaking with newsmen recently, the Acting Managing Director of the NPA, Mr. Mohammed Bello-Koko said that one of the measures the Authority took recently in tackling corruption at the port was a general redeployment of security officials that had stayed for a long time on their beats.

“What we have discovered is that there are security officials that have been working within the area we call the red zone, which is the Tin Can, Apapa area, for four, five or six years, and they are still there. We have requested that they should be posted out of that location and a new set of people that will actually and truly work for Nigeria taken there.

“We have had cases where we tried to establish proof of the people that were said to have been extorted because you need to have proof, but there is none.

“So, what we have now done is to look at how many checkpoints should be on the roads. We held a meeting with all the security agencies about three weeks ago and agreed to set up a team and identify how many checkpoints we should have along that corridor.

“If we identified six checkpoints, for instance, it means that when you wake up the next day and you find 16 checkpoints that mean there are 10 illegal checkpoints.

“It was also agreed that it is only right that any of the security formations, be it LASTMA, Police, Army or NPA, that is posting security operatives to the checkpoints, should have the names of officers posted to each checkpoints.”

“We believe that if we do that, and there is proof of extortion on a certain date, at a certain location, then we should be able to know the officers involved in it.

“But the interesting fact in all of this is that things have evolved now. You now have area boys they call ‘ECOMOG boys’, who do the collection for them.”

As at the time of filing in this report, truckers who ply the port access roads said nothing has changed as the same security officials still man the Tin-Can route.

Recall that the Council of Maritime Transport Union Associations (COMTUA) recently accused security operatives working with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Electronic Call-Up System popularly referred to as Eto of extortion and indiscriminate arrest of trucks. The group said that to put a stop to seizure of its trucks by security operatives working with Eto, the association has engaged the services of a foremost lawyer; Mr. Ebun Olu Onagoruwa.

President of COMTUA, Mr. Yinka Aroyewun while speaking during the groups’ review of its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at a joint meeting of the association’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and the Executive Members, called for a review of the operations of the electronic call-up of trucks.

He specifically alleged that, security agencies often impound trucks for little or no offence only for the purpose of extortion.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.