Bad roads: Truck drivers threaten to down tools

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.