A trucker, Mr Collins Dike, has said that 65 per cent of trucks in the county’s maritime sector were inactive due to extortions from hooligans, popularly called area boys.
Dike while speaking with selected journalists in Lagos on Monday, said these touts were inflicting hardship on truck owners and drivers.
He also accused them of making life and business difficult for them.
Dike said that truckers in Nigeria were suffering and going through a lot at the hands of these hooligans.
“I wanted to go and drop a container somewhere and area boys are everywhere preventing the truck from accessing the terminal. They were demanding N5,000 from me, if not my truck would not move, threatening to invite some law enforcement agencies.”
He said the rogues demanded new naira notes or asked truckers to transfer the money into their accounts.
According to him, the rate of extortion by the rogues was alarming.
“I even have the receipt of the ones we paid recently. There are receipts of N13,000, N20,000, etc. Extortion is everywhere even on Apapa road and the port axis. There is nowhere a truck will break down in Lagos State, even if you park properly, that area boys would extort money from you. You pay all sorts of money raging from N20,000 to N50,000.
“Due to this problem, 65 per cent of trucks are not working. Even seven of my trucks are parked. The small ones that are working, the hooligans are not allowing us to work. They are extorting us here and there. We have been milked by these rogues and nobody is doing anything about it.”
He blamed the government for the extortion of truckers by hooligans.
“We have three major problems in the maritime industry. The first one is the Federal Government. We have the Federal Ministry of Transport, which is under the Federal Government. Then, we have the Nigerian Ports Authority, which is under the Federal Ministry of Transport. NPA is a major part of the problem in this industry,” Dike lamented.
He accused NPA of not identifying with trickers, especially regarding the extortion they suffer at the hands of hooligans.
He also alleged that NPA had fragmented the truckers’ union.
“Another problem is the Lagos State Government. We have been extorted and stripped naked by the state government traffic law. We can not even pay our children’s school fees, change brake pads, and maintain our container hooks. Nobody cares about the financial situation of truckers,” he lamented.
