The Shippers Association  of Lagos State, last Monday, commended the Federal Government for providing maximum security at the Lagos ports.

President of the association, Mr Jonathan Nicol, told newsmen in Lagos that security issues should be everybody’s business.

“The Federal Government is doing its bit to manage the security situation in the ports; compared with what we used to have before, human traffic is getting less and pilfering is reduced.

“We believe as time progresses, we will outgrow that and the ports will be safer for everybody.

“The human traffic is not as bad as before, before it used to be like a market but now with the introduction of the Council of Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).

“And the biometric identity cards which a lot of people don’t have except you are a freight forwarder that has curb  a lot of movement of people coming in to trade’’, Nicol said.

Nicol however, urged the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to provide usable roads for port users to enable easy movement of trucks at the ports.

“The Nigeria Port Authority as the landlord’s of the ports area, they should provide usable roads. It is their duty to provide roads for the ports users.

“And when we mean road, we need road that heavy duty trucks can use, we need a very solid road that will meet with the present dispensation because most of the trucks using this road are heavy duty trucks.

According to him, “From 30 tones, 40 tones, 50 tones, they need to clear the road from Tin -Can to second gate to Grilmadi port; all trucks parked at the sideways should be expanded for trucks to park there.

“They should create two lanes for trucks to park there, so when it gets in one after the other they can now access the road through Tin- Can first and second, down the bridge gate for direct access outside the port,“ Nicol said.

The president, however, said that NPA should supervise all the ports access roads under construction to be sure that it was properly constructed to meet up with standard.