Apapa gridlock : Daily car sales drop by 92% - Berger motor dealers

 Maritime Report By: adekunle

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Tokunbo (used) vehicles at the Apapa port…buyers nowhere in sight

By Godfrey Bivbere & Agigail Ezenwafor

The United Berger Auto Dealers Association has said that the number of vehicles sold daily has dropped by 92 percent from the level three years.

Disclosing this to Vanguard Maritime Report in his office in Lagos, the President of the Association, Metche Nnadiekwe , said three years ago they use to sale between 20 to 30 vehicles daily but the number has since reduced to less than three a day.

He attributed this to the economic situation in the country and the state of the roads leading to and from the port that are so bad. He said even if the trucks are not blocking their wares, the bad roads would still have prevented would be vehicle buyers from coming to buy from them.

According to him, "This Park is in sections. In this section of the park we sale about 20 to 30 vehicles. It varies, it could go up or come down but since all these blockade started, before we sale one now we will pray and speak in tongues.

"And if anybody sale one, there would be jubilation. We will celebrate it as if manner has fallen from heaven. We are therefore pleading with the government to be fast in doing what they want to do because I know that this is not the only port we have in this country, there are other ports. We have been suffering here for more than three years.

"We are not foreigners we are Nigerians. We have responsibilities, we have bills to pay. The inversion of these trailers and tankers, the bad roads and the parking of these trailers here, make it seem as if we are not part of this country.

"For more than three years now we have never seen anything like this. People will come from nowhere with all impunity to come and block our environment.

"Nobody comes here to patronise us anymore and ordinarily this is supposed to be the biggest vehicle market in Africa if not the world. We have gone round the world and it is suppose to be a pride of the nation.

"Government is supposed to come and encourage us in what we are doing. You see, the money that is in this market runs into several billions of naira. There is no market in this country that is worth what we have here. Am I to talk about what the state government is getting from this market?

"Every vehicle sold here must be registered and the money goes to the state, are we not making contribution by adding to the economy of the state? Truly we are not happy," he noted.