Extortion on Port Access Roads

… MAJAN Recommends Permanent Solution to Activities, Identifies Hike in Petroleum Pump Price as Catalyst to Economic Hardship.

By Joe Njoku,

Global Freight News.

The Maritime Journalists Association of Nigeria (MAJAN) has commended Lagos State Government and the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) for their quick intervention in averting truck drivers planned strike as a result of extortion and harassment by hoodlums along ports corridor.

In a communique issued at the end of its monthly meeting held on the 12 day of September, 2024 at MAJAN secretariat in Apapa Lagos. The association addressed issues affecting the country and suggested that Lagos state government and the Nigeria Ports Authority should intensify effort in tackling the extortion by mounting security surveillance at strategic locations along the Tincan-Mile 2 port corridors to wade off further incursion of the hoodlums.

MAJAN stressed that security agencies/personnel that will mount the surveillance points should not turn the place to another checkpoint of extortion as this will be counter productive.

Similarly, the association also identified hike in Petroleum Pump Price as being responsible for the economic hardship currently experienced by Nigerians and consequently suggested that government should deploy measures to cushion the effect of this hardship.

“Government should give financial subversion, provide farming materials to farmers, subsidize transport fare among others. Items such as fertilizer, seedlings, herbicides, water pumping machines and hoses, animal feeds, subsidized kids and calves should be made available to farmers as an encouragement to boost productivity,” said the association.

The group wondered where the money removed from subsidy was ploughed. The group therefore, urge the government to tell Nigerians how they spent the money removed subsidy and what sector of the economy has the money been ploughed into.

Why urging the government to protect the consumers from exploitation, the association posited that Nigerians should hold the states and local Governments accountable for the current economic hardship in the country.

MAJAN noted that the monthly allocation to both tiers of government are not properly utilized and this has impoverished the citizens.

The group advised that government should stop ad-hoc solutions to the nation’s economic problems but should come up with good plans to better the future of the country.

The group urged government to revamp the refineries and get them working optimally. However, the group noted with dismay that if the refineries in the country are operational, the country would not be having the current issues it is facing now.

Therefore, the group urged the Senate and government to tell Nigerians why our refineries are not working even as government continues to pay salaries and allowances of workers in those moribund refineries, noting that the high rate of unemployment in the country, MAJAN however task government to create an enabling environment for job creation, adding that government should make our country a productive nation and not a consumers economy.

Addressing the menace of “One Chance” highway robbery, where unsuspecting commuters are lured into vehicle parked with armed robbers, the group enjoined the state Government to beef up security on our high ways. The group also urge the police to conduct checks on commercial buses periodically as commercial buses are mostly used by the robbers to perpetuate their illegal activities.