The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has threatened to sue the APM Terminal (APMT) to court over the recurring system failures at their terminal at the Apapa port, a development which the agents said has cost their clients and members millions of Naira.
The association has equally lambasted the Shippers Association Lagos State (SALS) for keeping silent over the crisis at the APMT Terminal, saying that members of SALS are not real shippers but impostors.
The Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has threatened to sue the APM Terminal (APMT) to court over the recurring system failures at their terminal at the Apapa port, a development which the agents said has cost their clients and members millions of Naira.
The association has equally lambasted the Shippers Association Lagos State (SALS) for keeping silent over the crisis at the APMT Terminal, saying that members of SALS are not real shippers but impostors.
Speaking simultaneously with press men in Lagos last week, National Publicity Secretary of ANLCA, Dr. Farinto Kayode and the Apapa Chapter Chairman of the association, Mr. Olumide Fakanlu said that ANLCA has issued seven days ultimatum to APMT, after which the association will seek redress at the courts.
The association equally assured that it is going to apply for accelerated hearing on the matter.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that there has been weeks of system breakdown at the APM Terminals in Apapa Lagos and several cargoes have been trapped at the terminal attracting demurrage.
Even though the Nigerian Shippers’ Council had stepped into the crisis two weeks ago, this has not made any meaningful impact on the situation.
ANLCA has however mandated all its members who were affected in the APMT crisis and whose container deposit funds are currently depleting in the hands of shipping companies to submit all their debit notes and other documents to the association, assuring that the national headquarters of ANLCA is ready to handle the matter.
Speaking, Farinto said "We all know the story of APMT, the atrocities and the illegalities the company has been committing, we also know that they have a sister company which is Maersk Line, ordinarily there should be an understanding between APMT and Maersk Line about the system failure"
"We are calling on our members who have this problem to submit their debit notes to the Apapa Chairman, we are writing them a letter, giving then a period of seven days after which we will go to court, we also appeal to individual importers to go to court, Nigerians should be litigious", he said.
ANLCA further alleged that APMT collected money's for holidays during the general elections. It stated that ordinarily, when there is a system failure, there must be a backup, if there is no backup the concessionaire must result to manual, but APMT have refused to result to manual in order to allow importers carry their cargo.
Farinto also lamented that APMT and it's sister shipping company; Maersk Line has refused to waive demurrage for the days that it was not able to attend to customers.
On his part, the Apapa Chairman, Olumide Fakanlu alleged that the stakeholder manager of APMT had at the recent stakeholders meeting in Apapa port promised that APMT will waive demurrage for seven days, but that the company has refused.
According to him, container deposits of N400 per 40- foot container and N200 per 20-foot container are being collected from clearing agents by shipping companies, he demanded that APMT have to refund all the money and bear the consequential losses.
He alleged that “the system failure is deliberate and it is negligence, in this era of technology, APMT as exposed itself, they should not come and say they don't have a back up"
Taking a swipe at the Shippers Association Lagos State, Fakanlu said that ANLCA expects that the association would have spoken since the beginning of the crisis at the Apapa port but the association has kept mum.
He recalled that members of SALS had condemned the freight forwarders for the strike action they embarked upon against APMT last year over failure of the terminal to position containers for examination.
"We expected them (SALS) to have said something about the current situation, but mind you, most of the so-called Shippers Association with due respect to their Chairman (Rev. Jonathan Nicole) that I think might be serious, many of them are just lay about"
Fakanlu also recalled that it was at the instance of Rev. Nicole that SALS joined the Nigerian Shippers Council in the court case against terminal operators and shipping companies.
He noted that it was the information that ANLCA supplied that enabled them to join in the case.
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