The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has constituted a committee to review the E-call up system in his commitment to reduce Apapa gridlock and strengthen effective movement of trucks and other articulated vehicles.
The Committee has been mandated to come up with measures capable of ensuring that the current abuse of the system becomes a thing of the past.
This was contained in a statement issued by the minister’s spokesman, Ismail Omipidan, on Wednesday in Abuja, which was forwarded to the Tribune Online.
The committee is to review the Standard Operating Procedures for Truck Traffic Management along the Lagos port corridor.
Omipidan, who noted that the committee was expected to meet with other critical stakeholders in Lagos on Thursday for the review, quoted Oyetola as saying that “every possible abuse of the system by humans should be x-rayed and solutions provided with a view to ensuring that it is abuse-free.”
Although the E-call up system was introduced by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), in February 2021 for trucks at the Lagos ports, which truckers are expected to use to book turns to enter the ports, recent reports have suggested potential compromises in the functionality of this system.
“I have a number of suggestions on how I believe the system can be strengthened. But I want inputs from the stakeholders. This is why I have set up this committee to interface with the service provider and other stakeholders in the industry to come up with a best way of dealing decisively with the saboteurs,” the minister said.
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