Less than three years after the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Lagos State Government demolished shanties and illegal structures at the Tin Can Island Port Complex; their owners and users have returned fully to the area.
Recall that in July 2021, the port authority and the Lagos State Government carried out a comprehensive joint demolition exercise to remove all shanties and illegal structures around Nigeria’s second busiest seaport.
The task force, set up by both bodies to to rid the port of the undesirable structures, had also set the Anumorigba Market at the Second Gate of the Tin Can Island Port on fire after ejecting traders from the market.
However, a visit to the area on Monday by a correspondent of SHIPS & PORTS revealed that not only have the illegals structures returned fully, they now complete for space with heaps of refuse around the port.
Human faeces also litter various sections of the Tin Can Island Port road due open defecation by trucker drivers, motorboys, touts and occupiers of the large number of illegal structures in the area.
Despite the large number of policemen and other security officials in the area, shanties dot the landscape from the port’s Second Gate to the Coconut area of the busy Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.
The stench oozing out of the rapidly growing refuse dumps around the port make the entire area smell like one large open sewer.
The Port Manager, Tin Can Island Port Complex, Sylvester Egede, absolves the Nigerian Ports Authority of any blame in the return of shanties, illegal structures and refuse heaps.
He said NPA was doing everything possible within its powers to keep the port environment clean.
See below pictures of the heaps of refuse and shanties along portcorridor.
