The truck e-call-up (ETO) system introduced by the suspended Managing Director of Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman’s has failed, according to truck owners and other stakeholders.
Stakeholders in the industry who spoke at the Annual Transport Lecture on Friday in Lagos said the special access to the ports granted to Dangote without recourse to the e-call up policy was one of the key reasons for the failure of the project.
According to them, small trucks have been abandoned in the the transit parts while big traucks have been allowed access to the ports unhindered.
They called on Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, the Lagos State Government and the President of ANLCA, Iju Tony Nwabunike, to intervene to rescue the situation.
READ ALSO: How Nigerians Can Get Loan To Study In US, Canada
They stated that small truck operators who are in the majority are made to stay at the transit parks for over two months before they are called, while on the other trucks owned by big operators, go in and out of the port everyday unhindered.
“In other climes, such trucks belonging to the owners of industries in the port would have been made to be operating at night, but in this case they have taken over the entire space, causing massive traffic gridlock and making it impossible for the e-call up system to work.
“These special favours to big men is what is killing us, we are not working at all,” Dele Omajuwa a transport operator lamented.
He said, “ETO has failed. It only wipes off the truck operators’ pocket.”
A former Deputy Secretary, Apapa Security Trust Fund, Mr. Mike Egbayelo, has advised the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to review the electronic call-up system for trucks to tackle the Apapa gridlock.
He emphasised the need to eradicate the network of corruption due to traffic management mechanisms.
