*Disrupt shipment of goods
Vincent Toritseju
Lagos — For three consecutive days, members of the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, last week held the entire Agbara Industrial and Resident Estates to ransom thereby disrupting the shipment of manufactured goods.
Drivers of these trucks used their vehicles to block the major road leading into the Estate from the Badagry expressway to Lusada, an adjoining community inside Ogun state, to protest the damage done to their vehicles by members of the National Union Transport Workers, NURTW, over ticketing fees.
According to one of the drivers Mr. Saliu Jamiu, affected by the development, the members of the NURTW who collects monies on behalf of their bosses used sticks to damage their side mirrors and wind screen before asking them for Union’s fee.
In an effort to get comments from members of the Agbara Unit of the Union, Alhaji Wasiu Oladele, told Vanguard Maritime Report that the trouble is between the Union and drivers in Ogun State side of Agbara and directed our correspondent to that part of the State.
Confirming the development, Taiwo Afolabi of the Agbara Unit of NURTW in Ogun State said that it was true that there was fracas between the parties involved, but added that he was not on duty on the day of the said protest.
Also speaking on the situation, the General Manager, Agbara Etates, Mr. Moshood Oyebode, told Vanguard Maritime Report that for three days the entire Estate was on lockdown as a result of the protest by truck drivers, a development that stalled the shipment of finished goods out of the industrial part of the estate.
Oyebode explained that the both the managements of the estate and the Ogun State Property Investment Corporation, OPIC, together with the Ogun State Police and the Unions were able to resolved the issues.
“It took the efforts of the Agbara Estate management and the OPIC with the Police to appeal to the protesting drivers to move their vehicles from the major road leading to the estate.
“The development affected the flow of traffic and movement of manufactured goods by industries in the Estate as the luck down was on for three days.
“It was in the afternoon of the second day of the protest that we began to feel the impact because industries could not ship out their finished goods because of the situation.
“If this had happened in the month of December, it would have had more devastating impact and it would have been too much for the industries to bear.” Oyebode stated.
An official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, LASTMA, also said that they were overwhelmed by the luck down of the Estate caused by the protesting drivers as the traffic spilled to the Badagry Expressway and other adjoining streets within the area.
