Truckers in Lagos under the auspices of the National Association Maritime Transport Operators (NAMTOP) have written to the national secretariat of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to clarify insinuations that the state chairman of the party is meddling in the affairs of road haulage operators in Lagos State.
In a letter signed by NAMTOP’s Secretary, Mr Bala Muhammed Sanni, and addressed to APC’s national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, the group affirmed that there was no interference by the leadership of the party in Lagos in the process that led to the emergence of the current leadership of NAMTOP.
NAMTOP alleged that the interference is an attempt by someone already driven by pride, arrogance, lacking understanding of democratic tenets, knowledge of fundamental rights of choice and attempting to insult the sensibility of the majority.
Explaining how NAMTOP emerged, the letter stated that it was birthed after a series of complaints by truckers on the activities of street urchins (popularly called Area Boys) and the high-handedness of the state traffic agencies, which is taking a serious toll on trucking business in the state.
The letter was copied to the Presidency, the Governor of Lagos State, Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the Lagos State Police Command, the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation and the Directorate of State Services (DSS)
The truckers’ body disclosed that the Lagos State Government, the State Chairman of APC and the Deputy Governor, all advised that truckers should come under one unified body in order to enable the state government to collaborate with the truckers so as to address the challenges in road haulage business in the state.
The NAMTOP letter explained to the APC chairman that, rather than accuse the APC leadership in Lagos state of meddlesomeness, it was the majority of trucking unions/associations and their elders that agreed and came up with the National Association Maritime Transport Operators (NAMTOP) as a unified body of Maritime Transporters for the implementation of the Ease of Doing Transportation Business policy in Lagos State.
