Pandemonium ensued on Tuesday when hoodlums attacked officials of a task team belonging to the Lagos State Government during the road clearance exercise to open up the clogged Tincan Port access roads.
It was learnt that the task team which comprised the Lagos State Truck and Cargo Operators Committee, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, Nigeria Ports Authority, and the Nigeria Police, witnessed the brutal attack on the members.
The task team had on Monday embarked on the exercise to open up the inbound section of the Tincan Port access road as part of efforts to ensure free flow of traffic, enhance trade facilitation, and seamless evacuation of cargoes from the port. The team continued the exercise on Tuesday to create and implement a single-lane policy for truck movement to allow access for other road users.
However, our correspondent gathered that five minutes into the commencement of the exercise from Tincan’s second gate, thugs disrupted the operation.
During the incident, a LASTMA official sustained injury and also lost his phone, one of the thugs was arrested and taken to the task force office at Oshodi.
The road clearance team tactically withdrew from the Tincan Port Gate to prevent a total breakdown of law and order and high casualties.
It was gathered that efforts to clear the roads of indiscriminate parking of trucks, tankers, and checkpoints to promote ease of doing business, trade facilitation, and seamless evacuation of cargoes from the Tincan Port corridor had continued to be sabotaged.
Reacting to this, a source close to the team condemned the attack. “The act was unfortunate and I highly condemn it. Because the people who came out to disrupt this exercise are supposed to join hands with us to promote the ease of doing business. But unfortunately, they ended up attacking us. They are supposed to join hands to sanitise the road,” the source said.
Meanwhile, several attempts to get the reaction of the Lagos Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Benjamin Hundeyin, or the Director of Publicity, LATSMA, Mr Adedayo Taofiq, were not fruitful as they didn’t pick up the calls sent to them.
