By Tunde Ojudun
As cargo volumes surge toward the year-end, Comptroller Emmanuel Oluwadare Oshoba, Customs Area Controller of the Lagos Port Complex, Apapa Command, is taking strategic steps to avert port congestion. Leveraging his background as former Comptroller Intelligence at Headquarters, Oshoba is applying intelligence-led insights to maintain operational fluidity.
Speaking to a group of maritime journalists on Thursday, Oshoba disclosed that early intelligence reports signaled potential congestion. “And as I go through the reports, I discovered that something is trying to rear its ugly head and that we need to nip such issue in the bud on time…It is the issue of congestion,” he said.
Comptroller Oshoba identified several contributing factors to the looming congestion.
According to him, containers on transire or in transit linger at the port instead of moving to their destinations.
He also noticed truck buildup outside the port, as truckers try to turn the area into truck parks, just as the way areas like Ore and Ijebu-Ode are becoming informal truck parks. He also discovered unchallenged behaviour by certain individuals causing delays in truck movement.
To address these, Oshoba met with the Port Manager and agreed on a joint strategy. “We both agreed that we will work in tandem,” he said, noting visible improvements along the 1.6-kilometer road stretch leading to the port gate.
With Oshoba’s proactive efforts, traffic flow has reportedly improved, even as the Port Manager assured him that efforts to streamline truck movement are ongoing. “He appreciated that we have some glitches in the ecosystem of these trucks coming, and they are going to work on it,” Oshoba added.
Oshoba thanked the media for their role in promoting positive change and emphasized the need for collaboration. “This is a Nigerian project. We are all stakeholders,” he said, urging the public to support industrial peace and harmony.
He concluded with a call for dialogue over conflict: “ We want industrial peace and harmony within this environment. It’s better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. Let that be the attitude in this environment so that we can achieve set goals.”