Capt. Adewale Ishola, former president, Master Mariners Association of Nigeria (MMAN), has urged the Federal Government to issue a directive to remove the trucks blocking Lagos ports’ access roads, in order to reduce their transaction time.

Ishola gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.

“Let the owners of the vehicles know where to park them. The bridges are not for parking; they are causing unnecessary havoc to other road users.

“I had to move my office from Apapa because I could not cope with the stress of five to six hours on the road daily. How much work would I be able to do on such days?

“Going back home is another issue. So, let these vehicles leave the Apapa axis. When they are required, they can then request for them and then they can come based on rotation.

“When you are required, you go in there and load and you go out; not to occupy the road,” he said.

Ishola, however, commended the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for introducing barges to evacuate cargoes and decongest the ports.

The mariner said NPA had started something very good by moving goods by barges. He recalled that companies like BACO Liner and BRAWAL Shipping, were doing that in the past.

“Everything shouldn’t be on the road and we have our inland waterways there. We need to have barges to move goods. We don‘t need deep draught to move on those waters,” Ishola said.

He recalled that before now, shippers made use of rail transportation to move containers out of the ports.

According to him, a train usually loaded about 50 containers at a time, while a trailer can only carry one or two containers at a time.

He, however, said the adoption of other means of transportation like rail would enhance port efficiency and improve cargo throughput.