Port Access Roads Extortion : MAJAN Recommends Permanent Solution To Hoodlums Activities At Truck -Out Points By Asuquo Nuwak … Identifies increase in petroleum pump price as catalyst to economic hardship in Nigeria …Commends Lagos State Government and Nigerian Ports Authority for immediate intervention in averting truckers’ proposed strike. The Maritime Journalists’ Association of Nigeria (MAJAN) has commended the Lagos State Government and Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) for the immediate intervention in averting truckers’ proposed strike as a result of extortion, intimidation and harassment by hoodlums along port corridor. In a communique issued at the end of its monthly meeting held on Thursday, 12 September 2024, at its Secretariat in Apapa, Lagos, the association addressed various issues affecting the state of the nation and suggested that Lagos State Government and Nigeria Port Authority should intensify effort in tackling the extortion by mounting security surveillance at necessary points along Tin Can-Mile 2 port corridor to ward off further incursion of hoodlums. It warned security agencies and personnel who will mount the surveillance points not to turn the place to another checkpoint of extortion as this will be counter productive. Aside from this, the association also identified increase in petroleum pump price as being responsible for the economic hardship currently experienced by Nigerians. Consequently, MAJAN suggested that government should deploy measures to cushion the effect of this hardship. The association is quoted as saying that: “Government should give financial subvention, provide farming materials to farmers, subsidize transport fare, among others. Items such as fertilizer, seedlings, herbicides, water pumping machines and hoses, animal feeds, subsidized kids and calves should be made available to farmers as an encouragement to boost productivity”. The group wondered where the money removed from fuel subsidy was ploughed. It urges the government to tell Nigerians how they have utilized the money removed from fuel subsidy and what sector of the economy has the money been ploughed into. The group, which urged the government to protect the consumers from exploitation, also said that Nigerians should hold the state governors and the local government chairmen accountable for the current hardship in the land. The group also noted that the monthly allocation given to both the state governments and local governments are not properly utilised, and this has left the citizens impoverished. The group also advised government to stop ad-hoc solutions to national economic problems , but should rather come up with deliberate economic plans to better the future of the country. They also urged the government to revamp the refineries and get them working.It noted that if the refineries in the country are functional, the nation would not be having issues it is currently facing now. It therefore urged the senate, house of representatives and the government to tell Nigerians why the refineries have refused to function, even as government continues to pay salaries and allowances of the workers in tbose refineries. In the area of high rate of unemployment in the country, the group urged government to create an enabling environment for job creation, adding that government should make our economy a productive one and not a consumer economy, as it is presently. In addressing rampant issue of Danger on the wheel, popularly called “One Chance,” highway robberies, where unsuspecting commutters are lured into vehicle stuffed with armed robbers, the group enjoined the state governments to beef up security on high ways. In conclusion, the group further urged the police to conduct periodical checks on commercial vehicles, as commercial buses are mostly used by these dare devil robbers to perpetrate their nefarious activity.