Deborah Akinyosoye
Tanker drivers in Lagos State say they will stop loading petroleum products on Monday, claiming they afford N12,500 per truck for the E-Call Up system on the Lekki-Epe Corridor.
Recently, the Lagos Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, said the E-Call Up system was designed to regulate the movement of articulated vehicles and tankers accessing the corridor, thereby promoting orderly traffic flow and preventing the kind of gridlock previously experienced in the Apapa area.
However, the tanker drivers, under the aegis of the National Association of Road Transport Owners, said they could only pay N2,500 per truck.
In a brief interview on Sunday, NARTO President Yusuf Othman said the association was still in talks with the Lagos State Government to allow its members to pay N2,500 per truck instead of N12,500.
“For now, we are still negotiating with the Lagos State Government. The N12,500 is too high. We recommended N2,500 from the beginning. Let’s see how it goes and if we can reach an amicable resolution. But if the government does not agree, our boys will not go and load tomorrow,” Othman said.
Reacting, the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Olawale Musa, said the N12,500 was not going into government coffers.
According to Musa, the money was for the use of the facility built for the drivers in the Lekki axis to avert gridlocks and environmental pollution.
He added that the facility was built by a private investor and said the union and the drivers should try to obey rules and regulations to prevent the Lekki-Epe corridor from turning into the old Apapa road.