The Lagos State Truck and Cargo Operators Committee (LASTCOC) has condemned the unjustified and unwarranted extortion and assault of truck drivers in Lagos State by hoodlums.
This call is coming in the wake of an attack on a truck driver by hoodlums along the Mile 2—Oshodi express road at the weekend, which has left the driver hospitalised.
The LASTCOC Chairman, Lukman Shittu, while addressing the media on the incident, said some toll-collecting thugs at the Berger bus stop outwards on Mile 2-Oshodi Express Road on Saturday morning flagged down a loaded containerised truck to extort the driver.
He said that when the driver refused to stop, one of the thugs jumped onto the driver’s side and started dragging the steering wheel with him, which made the truck swerve to the other side of the road and crash into some tokunbo vehicles parked along the road.
Shittu said that as the driver attempted to grab one of the hoodlums, he was stabbed from behind and rushed to the hospital.
Shittu further stated that on December 5, 2023, at the exact spot, the same extortion hoodlums dragged steering with a driver, leading to the falling of a truck and its loaded container, causing huge financial loss to the importer and the truck owner.
He said the activities of these destructive and lawless hoodlums are killing transportation businesses in Lagos State and discouraging foreign investors from investing in the transportation business.
According to him, these hoodlums damage trucks, burgle containers in transit, collect money, and assault the drivers, causing road accidents and traffic gridlock, thereby making life unbearable for members of the public.
He said these hoodlums, who are not adding any value to our economy apart from destruction, have made the transport business environment in Lagos State so hostile for truckers to operate with their illegal multiple checkpoints in Mile 2, Lagos Badagry Express Road, Ikorodu, and other parts of the state.
Shittu said the marauding hoodlums on roads in Lagos State are a potential threat to the domestication and deriving benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), as well as achieving the T.H.E.M.E. agenda and policy of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s government in the area of transportation.
He warned that the trucking community cannot continue to fold its arms and watch hoodlums under the guise of working for the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), local governments, and some individuals to jeopardise the haulage business, import and export economies, revenue generation, trade facilitation, and seamless evacuation of cargoes to and from the nation’s seaports in the state.
“We are therefore calling on the government at all levels, relevant stakeholders, and those who wish well for the economy of Nigeria and Lagos State to rise and do the needful on the menace of hoodlums that are destroying our trucks, robbing our drivers, burgling containers in transit, blocking highways, causing traffic, and causing ghastly accidents that have been claiming innocent lives and militating against the progress and stability of trucking business in Lagos State,” he said.
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