The Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNFFIEC) has threatened to embark on a nationwide protest over high rate of extortion on container laden trucks enroute Portharcourt from Lagos ports.
The president of the association, Chukwu Osita Patrick alleged that container laden trucks move through over 700 checkpoints from Lagos ports to PortHarcourt.
Speaking to journalists in Lagos, Patrick warned that if in 14 days, the government failed to dislodge the checkpoints, his group will mobilise to protest the brazen extortion of road users by security operatives.
To him, “Just last week, I went to the South-East and the South-South, and was shocked at the numbers of checkpoints along the highways leading to these places. I am not here to talk about the state of the roads because we all know what they are. From Lagos to Enugu, and down to Port Harcourt, I counted the checkpoints, and they are over 700. With all these checkpoints, yet the insecurity in this country is alarming. Tell me, what is the relevance of these checkpoints if insecurity issues is still plaguing us as a nation?”
At each checkpoint, he alleged that private vehicle owners pay between N3000 to N5000 while tankers and container carrying trucks pay more, thereby, making a journey of 11 hours from Lagos to Enugu becomes two or three days for container carrying trucks.
“To freight agricultural produce from the East to the ports here in Lagos for export is now very expensive due to money paid along our highways. This is contributing to the high cost of doing business in our ports. It is time government looks into this anomaly. We cannot continue like this,” he pointed out.