Lagos Ports security agents extort bribe through multiple illegal checkpoints
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Security agents who are meant to protect road users around the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports have instead turned into vessels of corruption who extort bribe from truckers and aid theft of goods, truck owners and drivers have cried out.
Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Secretary Mohammed Sanni said security operatives have erected more than 30 illegal checkpoints between Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports through which they perpetrate the crime.
They defy government authority and turn into channels of organised impunity and official lawlessness to add to the cost of doing business, he lamented at a meeting in Lagos hosted by Convention on Business Integrity (CBI) in collaboration with Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (MACN).
“There are over 30 illegal checkpoints existing within the Apapa and Tin-Can Island Port corridor where truckers are compelled to pay between N50,000 and N60,000 per trip to access the port, despite having valid electronic call-up tickets.
“The myriad of illegal checkpoints on the Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports roads in Lagos have become a channel of organised impunity, official lawlessness and excesses that is defying the governments,” Sanni said.
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Cancer in the maritime industry
“Existence of multiple checkpoints in the ports corridor is among the major cancer eating away the proceeds of truckers and undermining growth and progress of the transport sector in the maritime industry.
“It is the root cause of why trucks are looking rickety due to damaging activities of traffic enforcement, security agencies and transport union and local government hoodlums,” Sanni added, per reporting by Vanguard.
“The Apapa and Tin Can Ports corridors have become a notorious haven of corruption and extortion by state and non-state actors.
“As a result of multiple checkpoints, we no longer have security along the ports roads because the priority of security men is to extort money from truckers.
“On same roads with presence of security operatives, containers are being burgled and hijacked. On same roads, hoodlums are extorting and robbing truck drivers.
“On the bridges manned by the security personnel, the bridge light cables installed by the federal government to light up the bridges at night for security have all been stolen by scavengers.”