Apapa-Oshodi traffic nightmare (2): Defying the Petroleum Act

By Yemie Adeoye, VICTOR AHIUMA YOUNG, Godfrey Bibvere, Kunle Kalejaye& Nnenna Ezeah
The first part of this report was published yesterday
ALSO speaking to Vanguard on the development, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, the agency saddled with oil industry regulation and issuance of depot licences said that NUPENG members under the PTD have defied the Petroleum Act of 2002.

The department said: “The Petroleum Act, CAP350 Part V – (Transport of Petroleum in Bulk on Federal Trunk and other Roads in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja) section 80 sub-section (1) states that ‘No tanker vehicle shall be parked on the high way.’ This underscores that parking of tanker vehicles on the highway is forbidden. The 30 tank farms located along Apapa Tin-Can axis, of recent have become a source of concern to both the Federal and state government.

The 30 tank farms are located in Kirikiri (with five tank farms), Beachland Estate ( three), Ibafon Complex  (17), and Creek Road, Apapa (five tank farms). Further investigations revealed that tanker vehicles would not be littering the Federal highway if the nation’s pipelines were working effectively and are not frequently vandalised, a situation which the Federal Government should urgently address.

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Pipelines in the country have suffered frequent vandalisations thereby forcing oil marketers to depend on the haulage vehicles to transport petroleum products from the southern part of the country to the North and other regions. The ugly scene usually witnessed along the Oshodi-Apapa expressway has been attributed to lack of coordination of tanker vehicles coming to lift petroleum products from the various tank farms located along that axis.

A NUPENG official at Ibafon oil depot who simply gave his name as Joe told Vanguard that tank vehicles were given permission to come and pick up petroleum products. He said: “Any tanker that is unable to pick his product for that particular day will have to come the next day because the depot usually shuts down operation between 5pm and 6pm on a daily basis.” Joe also noted that the Lagos State government has allocated a single lane to tanker drivers in order to ease traffic flow.

The DPR is of the opinion that the Federal Government should implement the Petroleum Act to the letter.

Meanwhile, General Manager in charge of Public Relations of the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, Chief Michael Ajayi, described the traffic log-jam as “very worrisome” but stressed that it was not in the Authority’s jurisdiction to construct the road.

Ajayi explained that though the problem was affecting port operations since trucks cannot get out easily after loading, it is the duty of the Federal Ministry of Works to embark on the road expansion project that is ongoing.

In his reaction, National Secretary of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, Uchu Block, attributed the chaotic traffic situation in the area to poor planning on the part of government in the concessioning of the ports.

Block told Vanguard that immediately after the concession exercise, the concessionaires went on to petition the ports and there was no consideration at all for parking space for trucks. The space usually used as parking space has since been converted to other uses.

Speaking on the way forward, Block said government must, as a matter of urgency, force the shipping companies to get a holding bay out of the port area where they can store empty containers until they are ready to receive them.

This, he noted, would free the access roads of the number of containers lining up along the road daily. He also said there was need for government to speed up the construction work on the road as he expressed worry that the traffic problem has continued to drive up the cost of hiring trucks for the loading of containers in and out of the ports.

Block said the cost of hiring a 20 and 40 footer trucks in the past was between N20,000 – N25,000 and N30,000 – N35,000, respectively. However, he pointed out that the cost has since gone as high as N70,000 – N80,000 and N110,000 – N120,000 for 20 and 40 footer trucks, respectively.

He said it was not the fault of the truck owners because they had to wait for between two and three days before they can get jobs to do as a result of the congestion, adding that they build this into their charges.

The scribe of NCMDLCA told Vanguard that the congestion has made it very difficult to get trucks to hire as most of them now spend a lot of time in traffic. He explained that there is a high level of competition among importers and their agents for the few available trucks which are hired in most cases by the highest bidders.

A NUPENG staff working with Ibeto Oil who spoke to Vanguard on the condition of anonymity said the traffic was not caused basically by oil tankers but rather by containers heading to the ports. He said that each depot in Ibafon Oil tank farm has enough parking facility that can take up to 20–25 trucks each.

He said: “It depends solely on the sales of product and the availability of petroleum products at the moment; so we divide it into batches and call them in according to batches. We have parking lots where tanker drivers park and wait to be called upon to join the queue, we have Rahamaniya park, and on Ibadan Expressway (Ibafo); MRS Park, Capital Oil Park. No tanker driver is allowed to park indiscriminately as that attracts a penalty which no one wants.

“All they do is park at their various parks, when it gets to them, they are called upon and on getting there they will have to undergo scrutiny at the gate to ensure they have everything complete before entering the depot.” He also blamed the construction work by Julius Berger on the ever-busy road as a major contributing factor to the ugly development. This view was shared by another NUPENG staff attached to Sahara unit.

He noted: “Over three years now construction works have been going on in that Tin-Can area but we have never seen what they have done so far. Imagine a road construction that is supposed to go on everyday, both day and night, but on weekends they will not be around.

“Even at night when they are supposed to continue with the work, they will not be there. Serious attention should be paid to the construction and maintenance of these roads to enable the free flow of traffic. Julius Berger should be properly supervised.”

He also referred to a directive by the Presidential Committee on Traffic at the port which requires that container drivers do not park along the roads of the port, adding that they have been asked to go to the off-dock to offload the containers pending when the shipping companies are ready to pick them up.

Unfortunately, he said, the container drivers started taking advantage of the opportunity created by tanker drivers who were previously parking at the left side of the express way before the LASTMA allocated the one lane (service lane) to the tank farms. So, he would want the committee on traffic at the port to extend their services from the port to the Mile 2 axis.