It was a shameful sight to behold in Lagos last week as herds of cows were seen roaming freely on the ever-busy Wharf Road and Point Road, Apapa, disrupting the movement of haulage trucks and other vehicles plying the port.
Wharf Road is the major access road leading to the nation’s largest seaport – the Lagos Port Complex, popularly called the Apapa port.
Herds of cows were seen occupying significant portions of both Wharf Road and Point Road, near Area B Police Command, opposite Leventis and near the headquarters of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF).
Several residents of Apapa GRA and port users who spoke with SHIPS & PORTS expressed outrage against the owners of the cows, wondering why the authorities, especially the police, would allow cows to roam freely on the busy port access roads.
“This is strange, terrible, and dangerous,” a port worker said of the cows roaming freely on the roads.
When contacted on what the police was doing to remove the cows from the road, the Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, Benjamin Hundeyin, directed SHIPS & PORTS to the Commissioner of Police, Western Ports Police Command, Jonathan Towuru. However, the Commissioner could not be reached as at press time.
Spokesman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ibrahim Nasiru, when contacted, said he saw nothing wrong with cows roaming freely on the port access roads.
He said, “Cows in the port are not in any way hindering port operation, neither are they disturbing vehicular movement. As a matter of fact, what do Area B vicinity and NAGAFF secretariat have to do with NPA?”
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