"An Embarrassment": TTP Exposes Cartel Fighting Against Electronic Call-up System at Lagos Ports

• The government had introduced an electronic call-up system at the ports to enhance truck logistics and ease movement in those corridors
• However, the firm implementing the system has raised alarm about a cartel that is opposing this new system
• The TPP Boss explained how this cartel benefited and exploited truck drivers under the former system

Legit.ng journalist Ruth Okwumbu-Imafidon has over a decade of experience in business reporting across digital and mainstream media.

Stakeholders at the Apapa ports have raised alarm that the cartel benefiting from extortion in the former system is strongly opposing the implementation of the electronic call-up system.

The firm handling the electronic call-up system for trucks at the Lagos ports, ETO, Trucks Transit Parks (TTP), detailed that this cartel consists of players within and outside of the government.

Managing Director of TTP, Jama Onwubuariri, told the executives of the Transportation Correspondents Association of Nigeria (TCAN) that this cartel is opposed to the electronic call-up because it would block the gaps used to extort truckers in the old system.

Read also

Senate tells FG to stop sale of Lafarge cement to Chinese firm, gives reason

ETO introduces app for electronic call-up

Onwubuariri explained that since the inception of the ETO app in 2021, it has been upgraded 160 times.

He narrated how the port concessions of 2006 left a lot of space within the ports, where trucks parked while waiting for their cargoes.

However, those spaces are now being used to stack containers due to the growth in imports and exports, leaving the truckers to park outside the ports on the access roads.

Onwubuariri noted that there was a cartel of different players who took advantage of the situation to extort money from the drivers before allowing them into the ports.

According to the TPP boss, some truckers would have to spend up to 250,000 or 300,000 just to get into the port.

He said;

“It was an embarrassment for us as a country.”

With the implementation of an electronic call-up system, they no longer had the means to.

Read also

Petrol marketers warn Nigerians against panic buying, share expectations from naira-for-crude deal

Lagos state govt implements e-call-up

Recall that the electronic call-up system had been implemented in the Lekki-Epe corridor in September 2024.

This would effectively manage truck movements in the Lekki-Epe corridor, reduce waiting time, streamline traffic flow, and enhance logistics within the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

However, on March 4, 2025, the government suspended the e-call-up system after discussions with unions like NUPENG, IPMAN, NARTO, and PTD, to engage further with union members to ensure compliance with parking rules.

This suspension has caused investor uncertainty, as the lack of enforcement could lead to unregulated truck movements and congestion, threatening the viability of truck parks.

Investors withdraw from Lekki-Epe ports corridor

In related news, investors are withdrawing from the Lekki-Epe port corridor, despite sinking hundreds of millions of naira.

They complained that the government has not intervened to coordinate the activities in the corridor, especially with the truckers.

Read also

Dangote Refinery supplies jet fuel to US as Nigerians await return to petrol sales in naira

The investors thus decided to count their losses and move on to other projects, but a few still held on to their investments and hoped for a change.

Source: Legit.ng