Lagos State Truck and Cargo Committee (LASTCOC), yesterday, decried continued attacks on truck drivers and their assistants (motor boys) by hoodlums and extortionists along the Tincan port area of Lagos State.
The attackers, armed with guns and machetes on February 6, assaulted truckers, leaving a motor boy dead. Three others sustained cuts and bullet wounds, and are currently receiving treatment in hospital.
LASTCOC expressed its grievances in a letter to the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which was copied to the Director, Department of State Services (DSS); Manager of Tincan Island Port; Commissioner of Police, Lagos State and Port Authority Command, Apapa; Chairman Project Implementation Committee and Port Manager, Apapa Lagos Port Complex (LPC); and National Coordinator of Port Standing Task Force.
In the letter signed by the chairman, Lukman Shittu, the committee decried attacks by miscreants who generate revenue through anarchy in traffic. It lamented that the sad development is sabotaging efforts by authorities to enhance orderliness in traffic, facilitate trade, and boost seamless evacuation of cargoes at the Tincan port corridor.
Shittu said no amount of threats, intimidation, attacks or cheap blackmail by beneficiaries of anarchy in the maritime industry will make the committee back down from its mandate.
He said: “We are calling on all our members, as usual, to remain peaceful and law abiding as the matter is currently being handled by the police to ensure the perpetrators of this dastardly act are brought to justice.”
Shittu also applauded the demolition of shanties that serve as hideouts for criminals and extortionists, which commenced yesterday.
