Lagos – Chief Remi Ogungbemi, President, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), on Friday said that truckers may withdraw their services from Lagos ports because of the bad access roads.Ogungbemi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the port access roads were in terrible state and was hampering business.The AMATO president said that the truckers’ planned boycott would have started before now if not for the intervention of some respected operators.“The association intends to have a meeting with some operators on Oct. 25; if this meeting fails to proffer feasible palliatives, truckers will not have any other option.“For a long time now, we havebeen drumming it in the ears of the authorities without any attention on their part.“We cannot continue to work in a vicious circle in which trucks break down after everytrip to the ports due to bad roads.“We end up expending a hugeamount to put them back on the road,’’ Ogungbemi said.The condition of the road wasso bad, causing trucks to staylonger than expected on loading queues or to drop empties, he said.The AMATO president added that truck drivers wasted business hours just trying to get to theports.“It seems the only way left forus to make the authorities listen to us and fix the roads is to down tools.Some youths have taken advantage of the situation by undertaking temporary repairs to the road and putting in place makeshift platforms for vehicles to passfor a fee.
Ibadan— TWELVE persons, including a mother and her twin children, were feared killed in an accident that occurred, yesterday, at Oja-Oba Market area of the Ibadan South East Local Government Area of Oyo State. Some of the vehicles and tricycles crushed by the truck (inset) in Ibadan, yesterday. PHOTOS: Dare Fasube. Police put the casualty figure at four, but some eyewitnesses claimed the number of lives lost could not be less than 12. While the accident left several people injured, several commercial cars and property were crushed by an articulated vehicle. According to a source, the driver of the truck, which had just off loaded cement, lost control of his vehicle and crushed about 12 persons on the spot. While the remains of those killed were taken to the morgue at Adeoyo State Hospital, the injured were rushed to the University College Hospital, Ibadan. It was gathered that the truck, with number plates AGL883XQ, skidded off its lane to the other side of the road, crushed man...
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