Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise want the government to begin to decongest the Apapa area of Lagos by looking toward expanding the existing infrastructure to other parts of Lagos.
The members believe that since there are other parts of the state where port services can be extended, the government should consider developing such areas as one of the ways of addressing current congestion in the area.
A member of the Committee and member representing Alimosho Federal Constituency of Lagos State, Olufemi Adebanjo, and the member representing Apapa Federal Constituency, Muftau Egberongbe believe that unless the government takes a proactive step towards decongesting the area, it will continue to experience revenue losses.
Speaking when the Committee visited the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Rep Adebanjo said the government should consider developing other ports outside Apapa in areas where vessels can be diverted to within and outside Lagos.
He said: “Lagos is growing and will continue to grow. The population will not decrease. That is why we must be proactive and look at the possibility of developing other ports.
“If we don’t take this option, I am afraid that we will continue to experience the huge congestion we are facing in Apapa right now. So, we must do something about it.
“When that is done, many of the operators will now be diverted to those areas and then, the congestion here in Apapa would have been addressed.”
On his part, Egberongbe said the master plan of Lagos was done in a way that all Tank Farms currently situated in Apapa are supposed to be in the Lekki area of the state.”
He said: “I was Chairman of the Committee on Environment of the Lagos State House of Assembly for eight years and I know that these Tank Farms are supposed to be in Lekki.
“We develop that area and other parts so that the Tank Farms can move out of Apapa. Tank Farms are combustible. It is a danger waiting to happen. When you move the Tank Farms from Apapa, all the oil tankers being parked on the road here will move, thereby reducing the congestion.”
Chairman of the House Committee on Customs, Leke Abejide expressed concern over the continued congestion of the Apapa Ports, saying the government was losing much revenue as a result of congestion.
He said some importers were not bringing their cargoes to Nigerian ports because of the fear of delay in clearing and getting their cargoes out of the port.
