Truckers, Importers Raise Alarm Over Multiple Extortion By ‘Area Boys’ On Lagos Roads
LAGOS FEBRUARY 27TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Truckers and importers have decried multiple extortion experienced in the hands of ‘area boys’ across the roads in Lagos state.
The area boys are to be inflicting hardship on the truck owners and truck drivers by making life and business difficult for them.
Speaking with Daily Sun on the menace, truck owners Mr Dike Ekene Collins said that truckers are in hell, adding that those in the trucking business in the country are suffering and going through a lot in the hands of these areas boys.
“I want to go and drop a container, area boys are everywhere preventing the truck from accessing the terminal. They were demanding for N5000 from me, if not my truck stays there, they will go and call LASTMA to come to tow it away. Area boys are controlling everything in this country, nobody is saying anything or doing anything about it.
He said areas boys are even demanding for new naira note or they will give truckers their account details to pay money, saying that there are a lot of extortion everywhere.
“I even have the receipt of the ones we paid yesterday. There are receipts of N13,000, N20000 like that. Extortion everywhere even in Apapa road and port axis. There is no where a truck will spoil in Lagos state even if you cleared well that area boys gather you to pay. You pay all sort of money raging from N20000 to N50000.
He said sometimes if a trucker couldn’t meet the tugs’ demand, they would be threatening him with LASTMA or police, lamenting that this is what truckers are passing through everyday.
“Due to this problem, 65 per cent of trucks are not working. Even seven of my trucks are parked right now. The small ones that are working, are being harrased by area boys who are not allowing us to work and extorting us here and there. We have been milked by these tugs and nobody is doing anything about it.
“We have three major problems in the maritime industry. The first one is the Federal Government. We have Federal Ministry of Transport, which is under Federal Government. Then we have the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which is under Federal Ministry of Transport and NPA as a major part of the problem in this industry,” he lamented.
He said NPA does not want any single and identifiable union especially from the truckers to exist in the industry, as it keeps subdividing the union.
According to him, whatever that will keep further subdividing the union, NPA will give ears to whatever anybody is telling them, saying they will take whatever anybody is telling them and they will start working on to subdividing the union.
“I will give you an example, when we were having issues, when everywhere was filled up with trucks. The problem is not from us, it was just three problems, which include the roads, the management of empty containers and the problem of terminals. That was what the problem in the past. NPA introduced ETO to milk all the truckers and we pay for every trip.
“Another problem is the Lagos state government . We have been extorted, stripped naked by the state government traffic law. We can’t even pay our children school fees, change brake pads and maintain our container hooks. Nobody cares about the financial situation of truckers,” he lamented.
Sun News Online
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Posted by News Rangers
on Feb 27 2023. Filed under NASRDA.
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