News
Why Oshodi gridlock returned! *Lagos battles fresh menace *Groups, narrate tales of woes
After over two years of respite from the perennial traffic congestion along the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, container-laden articulated trucks and fuel tankers, residents and commuters along the strategic route are back to their lamentations.
Vanguard in a detailed account, reports that the menace resurfaced around the Mile 2-Berger Yard axis, causing massive gridlock and obstructing vehicular movement after blocking access and adjoining roads.
The situation was worsened by indiscriminate parking on both sides of the road and reckless driving by truck drivers along the Mile 2-Tin Can corridor of the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.
Many commuters and other road users spent several hours on trips that ordinarily would have taken less than an hour, causing frustration among road users and commercial transport operators.
Most Vanguard’s staff, including the Political Editor, Clifford Ndujihe, said he spent about two hours travelling from Festac First Gate to Mile 2.
“From First Gate, Festac side, to the office, I spent two hours. That’s crazy. We were told there was road repair work ahead,” he said.
A commercial driver, who spoke anonymously, said he left Mile 2 around 1:20 p.m. but did not get to Apapa until almost 4 p.m.
“A journey that should ordinarily take less than an hour consumed nearly three hours,” he lamented.
Another commuter, Mrs. Kemi Adeyemi, said she spent over three hours trapped in traffic, adding: “The gridlock has been terrible today. Many people were forced to trek long distances to get to their destinations.”
One of the affected motorists, Mr. Lanre Akindele, urged authorities to address the situation before it returned to the chaotic experience residents and commuters had endured in the past.
“Just when we thought we had seen the end of the gridlock permanently on this axis, it has started rearing its ugly head again. It should be nipped in the bud before it snowballs into another intractable situation,” Akindele said.
Reacting to the development, the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, swung into action to restore traffic flow and, subsequently, evacuated several trucks from the road, issuing a stern warning to operators to stay off access roads and maintain a single lane.
The second-in-command at LASTMA and former Director of Operations, Peter Gbejemede, condemned the resurgence of indiscriminate parking by petroleum tankers on the highway, assuring residents that the agency was committed to ensuring seamless traffic movement along the corridor.
He said: “We have engaged the leadership of truck operators on the need to keep the corridor free or face severe consequences and sanctions. Preliminary investigations revealed that the indiscriminate parking is linked to the activities of union agents at depot gates, who collect fees from each tanker before granting access into the depots.
“The backlog created by this process is what led to the indiscriminate parking. We are on top of the situation and necessary actions are being taken to restore sanity.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, Olohundare Jimoh, was said to have ordered the immediate dismantling of illegal checkpoints mounted by police teams and other agencies along Apapa port access roads.
At least five police officers, whose names were withheld, were reportedly arrested during an enforcement operation carried out by a special task force deployed through the Area B Command.
Reacting to the development, an official of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), blamed the surge in truck traffic on the aftermath of the Sallah holidays, explaining that Lagos, being the major fuel distribution hub, had attracted tanker drivers from different parts of the country.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, however clarified that while NUPENG controls members of its Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), branch, it has no control over containerised and articulated truck operators.
He said: “We can discipline our PTD members, whom we have consistently advised to obey traffic regulations, but we have no control over other truck drivers. We are not ruling out the possibility that some of our members, who came from the far North and other parts of the country may not fully understand the Lagos traffic environment and could follow other truck drivers to park indiscriminately. However, we always sanction any erring member caught by our monitoring team.”
He appealed to security agencies and other authorities to ensure orderliness and ease traffic flow to prevent commuters and road users from suffering unnecessarily.
Also reacting, Secretary-General of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), Mohammed Bala, who attributed the congestion to the influx of trucks into port terminals after the Sallah celebrations, said terminals, especially APM Terminals, were currently operating at full capacity.
He said: “Because of the festival celebrated last week, there has been a massive influx of trucks heading to the terminals. I contacted APMT and they informed me that the terminal is already filled up. They are admitting trucks gradually as space becomes available, but the traffic situation will soon ease.”
He explained that the situation was not limited to APMT alone, noting that several other terminals within the port corridor were also facing capacity challenges due to increased cargo and truck activities.
“I have also spoken with the Nigerian Ports Authority traffic manager and he assured us that they are on top of the situation,” he added.
The latest gridlock comes barely days after the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, PEBEC, led by its Director-General, Princess Zahrah Audu, carried out a special enforcement operation to clear illegal checkpoints and extortion points along the Apapa port corridor.
The operation followed complaints over illegal activities by security personnel and touts, which had significantly increased the cost of doing business within the axis.
The PEBEC team, working with officials of the Nigeria Police; Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA; Nigeria Customs Service, NCS; National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA; Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, and Lagos State Government agencies, dismantled several illegal checkpoints across the corridor.
The checkpoints, scattered across major access routes to the Apapa ports, had allegedly become avenues for extortion by corrupt officials, security operatives and touts who reportedly extorted truck drivers of huge sums of money.
Princess Audu had urged truck drivers to report any demand for illegal payments on the roads.
Among the locations cleared during the exercise were illegal checkpoints around Liverpool Bridge, the second gate at the Tin Can Island Container Terminal, TICT, approaches to terminal facilities and other extortion points at PTML and Ports & Cargo terminals.
Illegal checkpoints at NAGAFF Junction, ETISALAT and Fidelity roundabouts were also dismantled, while collection of illegal fees from truck drivers was banned.
The PEBEC DG also warned against indiscriminate parking of trucks on port access roads, directing drivers and fleet owners to comply with the new directives or face sanctions.
However, investigations revealed that illegal checkpoints had resurfaced along the corridor shortly after the operation.
Apparently responding to the development, the Lagos CP ordered the deployment of a special task force, in collaboration with Area B Command officers, to ensure total compliance with the directive removing all illegal checkpoints and restoring sanity along the Apapa axis.
During the enforcement exercise, five officers were reportedly arrested and detained at the Area B Command for further investigation and disciplinary action.
A truck driver identified simply as Tochukwu told Vanguard: “On May 26, the Area B Command and the special task force removed all checkpoints on Apapa Wharf Road under the NPA.
“The arrested policemen were allegedly aiding NPA officials in extorting truck drivers.”
“The task force carried out the operation from Ijora to Eleganza Roundabout around 3 p.m. last week.
“Following the CP’s directive, the Area B Division and Apapa Area Command dismantled all the illegal checkpoints set up by the NPA and other agencies.”
Also commenting on the development, the Special Assistant to the Governor on Transportation and Logistics, Comrade Hassan Adekoya, lamented what he described as deep-rooted corruption along the Apapa access roads.
According to him, the practice had become entrenched and would continue unless drastic and holistic measures were taken to tackle it head-on.
Police sources said the Commissioner’s directive was aimed at restoring sanity and professionalism to policing operations along the corridor.
“The CP ordered all Area Commanders and Divisional Police Officers within the corridor to dismantle every checkpoint immediately.
“He also warned that any officer caught violating the directive would be sanctioned accordingly,” a police source disclosed.
Culled from Vanguard
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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