Apapa residents to Osinbajo: We are now prisoners in our homes

to address the issues.

The Burma Street Residents’ Association in the Apapa area has also appealed to the Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, to take decisive measures against the menace.

The worried residents and aggrieved business operators in the area lamented that until something urgent was done by the state government on it, “our lives and businesses will continue to be endangered, not just by the traffic chaos, but also by the nuisance and threats constituted by weird-looking motor boys, some of whom have been attacking and robbing innocent people in the area.”

Several business outfits were said to have relocated, while some others completely folded up due to the traffic situation.

The Apapa gridlock is having a spiral effect in the adjoining communities such as Ajegunle, Ijora and Kirikiri as the long queues of trucks extend to those areas.

The publisher of a community paper, The Commoners, Momoh Jimoh Suleiman, wondered what would be the fate of residents of Ajegunle, a densely-populated area on the outskirts of the Lagos metropolis, in the event of a fire outbreak, as, to him, they knew next-tonothing about fire disaster management.

“How will they get help with petrol tankers now meandering in out narrow streets? If any of those trucks falls, spilling its content into homes, what will happen?” Suleiman wondered.

The Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship Beecroft, Commodore Eyo Okon, said that the slow pace of the reconstruction work on Wharf Road accounted for the congestion in the area, while the Mile 2-Coconut axis was not motorable because of the gully in the middle of the road.