Story by Dili Utomi
The Lagos State Truck and Cargo Operators Committee (LASTCOC) was constituted by the Lagos State Government through the Ministry of Transportation with its formal inauguration taking place on November 26, 2023. The body at inauguration had and still has Lukman Shittu Zangalo as chairman and Mohammed Sani Bala as general secretary.
The committee was created to manage the affairs of commercial haulage and cargo truck operators, streamline port traffic, and eliminate unauthorised checkpoints.
LASTCOC was also formed to synergise with the State’s traffic management entity, the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) to rescue cargo trucking and haulage logistics in and around Lagos from extortion by street urchins locally known as area boys.
In recent times, LASTCOC has been seen to be making attempts at fighting for unhindered access by truckers through the roads. The body has had to shake off a certain level of lethargy and move to instill some amount of sanity in the road in parts of Lagos metropolis especially the Ports corridors. Over the past few days, LASTCOC has commenced a sustained sanitation exercise on the port access corridors to curb extortion, improve compliance, and ensure the orderly movement of trucks into the ports.
The body has not been operating without any challenges either as there have oppositions to its existence by certain interest groups. In other to achieve a great level of success in carrying out its objective, LASTCOC is joining hands with known transport associations to rid the Ports corridor of extortion. The body is in cooperative agreement with the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) and Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), alongside other stakeholders and they are jointly carrying out the ongoing road excercise.
The collaboration is also aimed to facilitate credible complaints, field observations, monitoring, and timely intervention.
The ongoing exercise according to the body’s head honcho, Lukman Shittu Zangalo also builds on LASTCOC’s interventions over the past two years, which contributed to addressing extortion at several locations across Lagos. Its extension to the port access corridors reflects the importance of efficient and transparent truck movement to the state’s economy, he added.
Mr. Shittu argues that the ongoing intervention is equally consistent with the objectives of the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) in reducing unnecessary barriers, delays, costs, and extortion affecting businesses and the movement of goods.
This particular exercise according to LASTCOC is in response to complaints of repeated checks and unauthorised demands for money from truckers along the port access routes.
LASTCOC clarifies that there is no legal toll point on the port access roads. However, authorised checkpoints that exist for legitimate regulatory, security, and operational purposes are being used as approved extortion points. They want these illegal toll points to cease to exist.
There is also the distinction that the ongoing effort is not aimed at eliminating legitimate checks, but rather aimed at preventing their abuse. Where multiple points perform substantially the same function without operational necessity, LASTCOC says it will engage the relevant authorities towards reducing such duplication, particularly between the pre-gates and the ports.
Truckers should be able to undergo legitimate checks without being subjected to unauthorised demands for money, unnecessary delays, or repeated checks serving no clear purpose.
LASTCOC therefore says that it is documenting complaints, locations, and reported demands to support appropriate intervention and correctional responses.
The intervention will not be restricted to daytime operations, the body adds, but that mechanisms are being put in place to capture and verify reports of night-time extortion and refer established cases to the appropriate authorities.
The chairman of the body urges truck owners and drivers to provide credible and verifiable information on suspected extortion through the appropriate channels while complying with legitimate port-access procedures.
In all these, the body also warns truck owners and drivers against parking or queuing on the port access corridors without a genuine call-up or legitimate operational reason, including remaining on the line merely to wait for a terminal delivery order (TDO).
Such parking, they noted can obstruct the free flow of traffic, create avoidable congestion, and increase opportunities for extortion. It may also indicate an attempt to circumvent established port-access procedures.
Trucks without a genuine call-up or legitimate operational reason are warned to remain on the corridor and should not occupy the line. LASTCOC says that it will work with relevant stakeholders to distinguish genuine operational constraints from deliberate breaches of established procedures.
The exercise to sanitise the corridor must therefore address both the abuse of truckers by unauthorised collectors and non-compliance by truck operators
The chairman concluded that lawful checks must be protected, but their abuse must be stopped, but legitimate truck operations must be facilitated, while practices that obstruct traffic or circumvent established protocols must not be encouraged.
The question also arises about consistency and sustainability of these operations. For one people ask, are there enough trained personnel to ensure that truckers have unhindered access through the ports corridors? Again, there is the argument that there should be better spread of this kind of intervention to cover wider areas .
Finally, there is the worry that this kind of excercise may turn out like a lot of programmes previously implemented in Nigeria where rather than the body in charge solving the existing problems, exacerbates it.
Observes are cautiously optimistic that there may be a temporary succour for truck users over the next few months. This optimism is hinged on the assumption that politicians will not jeopardise their chances in the next general elections coming up in early 2027 by having public opinion against them and so will allow sanity on the roads, albeit for a few months.
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