Truck owners under the auspices of Joint Council of Seaport Truckers (JCOST) have accused government regulatory bodies attached to the ports of having no positive impact on them.
They body said this recently in Lagos in an interactive chat with maritime journalists.
Speaking during the chat, chairman of JCOST, Alhaji Kayode Odunowo, also said that they have concluded plans to sue the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) over alleged extortion by officials of the agencies. He disclosed that the matter is already with the Federal High Court and the case would come up for mentioning soon.
He also said that the 2016 sticker permit on truck standardisation issued by NPA to every truck plying the ports at N10, 000 each was illegal, saying the group is set to challenge that in court, even as he maintained that the levy has rendered most truckers jobless.
Odunowo said, "any moment from now we will be in court with the NPA over issue of sticker permit and obnoxious levies and fines by FRSC. The regulatory agencies have contributed negatively to truckers operations and there is need for government to reduce the number of agencies on the roads. Apart from the Nigeria Air Force every other paramilitary agencies of government including the Nigeria Navy, Army, Police among others have allegedly extorted transporters operating within the seaports. We are therefore using this medium to call on the government to create an enabling environment to enlighten both government agencies deployed on the highways and truck operators”.
Speaking further, he said, “it takes five days for a truck to access the seaport in Lagos, the roads linking the ports are in deplorable condition”.
Harping on unity among truckers, he added that: “The problem we at dry cargo section of haulage business are having is lack of unity unlike what is obtained in the wet cargo. I am therefore urging maritime truck owners to work together in achieving success in the business environment by speaking with one voice”.
He lamented that, “JCOST was not carried along when the decision by truckers and freight agents to withdraw their services from the ports was taken. They did not adequately mobilize all the stakeholders. The moves and ideas on the action were commendable. We are not against the strike, we have been involved in issue of the poor port access roads sometimes last year and we spend more than N4 million to fill some of the bad spots on Apapa road that year”.
“We are not part of the strike but we are interested in what brought about the strike. We have documents to show that we have written to the government concerning the bad condition of the ports access roads. We are appealing to the government to expedite action to fix the bad roads saying it would help to forestall incessant falling of trucks along the port roads as well as help to cushion the effect on the trucks”, he concluded.
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