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Lagos’s truck owners started an indefinite strike on Wednesday (9 September) to protest against the State government restricting truck movement in the city during the day.
The strike followed the Lagos State Government’s warning that it would get tough on any trailer and long vehicle contravening Section 2 of the Lagos State Road Traffic Law 2012, which forbids trailers to travel within the city of Lagos between 6am and 9pm.
The catalyst for the changing attitude towards the enforcement of this law was a fatal accident involving a container-laden trailer which killed three people on September 2 2015.
After this, Oluseyi Whenu, permanent secretary at Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, said that vehicles contravening this law would be impounded and fined.
The strike, which is headed by the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) and National Association of Road Truck Owners (NARTO), is likely to cause congestion as cargoes cannot be evacuated from APM Terminal Apapa.
On Thursday 11 September, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents said its members may also go on strike over the issue.
Lagos is not the only city to have recently implemented a law restricting truck movement in the daytime.
In February 2014, congestion problems occurred at the Port of Manila when the city introduced a daytime truck ban, which was only lifted by the City of Manila on 13 September 2014 in response to pressure from central government.
It took until April 2015, to clear the backlog caused by this truck ban and congestion.