About one week after the House of Representatives committee on marine transport stumbled on signs of distress with the tow concessionaires at the Port Harcourt port in Rivers state, its Privatisation and Commercialisation counterpart has lampooned the three concessionaires at the Calabar port in Cross Rivers state.
About one week after the House of Representatives committee on marine transport stumbled on signs of distress with the tow concessionaires at the Port Harcourt port in Rivers state, its Privatisation and Commercialisation counterpart has lampooned the three concessionaires at the Calabar port in Cross Rivers state.
The House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation summoned the Calabar port concessionaires to Abuja over their alleged failure to comply with the agreement they signed with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) at the commencement of their concession.
The summon became necessary following the allegations leveled against the concessionaires by the port manager, Mr Ahmed Dandare that they have reneged in the concession agreement with regards to some of the core projects in the development plan with regards to civil and capital works as contained in the agreement signed by them.
The affected terminal operators are: Integrated Logistics Services, Ecomarine Terminals Limited and Shoreline Logistics Nig. Limited.
Speaking in Calabar yesterday, the Chairman of the committee, Hon Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim said the invitation became necessary following the apparent failure to respect the terms of agreement.
According to the chairman, the Calabar port painted a bad picture of the port concessioning programme of the Federal Government and a sad picture of the privatisation and commercialisation project.
She warned that the committee will not take it lightly with any terminal operator that violates agreement, because, according to her, ‘‘the concession was done to better the live of Nigerians.’’
‘‘With the presentation from NPA, it shows that they are in breach of the agreement they signed with the Federal Government and that is not acceptable to us. It shows that the concessionaires are not serious. You have the property of the Federal Government with you and you now think that you can do whatever you like with it, well, that is not possible. The breach in the agreement shows that in the last six years, there are job lost, revenue lost and no meaningful improvement in the terminals, she pointed out.
The concession agreement stated various projects to be executed within each of the terminals on yearly basis
The committee therefore, urged the terminal operators to improve on their performance to avoid sanctions.
In their own remarks, the terminal operators said the port is strategically located to serve the maritime and logistics needs of the 16 northern states, the commercial cities of Aba, Onithsha, Nnewi and the neighbouring states of the South-South region of the country.
The operators complained seriously about the low activities at the port and the shallow vessel approach draft of 6.4 metres which they said is the most critical factor to harnessing the potential of the port.
They urged the Federal Government and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to embark on immediate dredging of the port to accommodate bigger vessels and remove all the critical wrecks on the waterways.
Shipping Position Daily had reported on Monday that the House committee on marine transport which is headed by Hon Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was in Port Harcourt port last week on what it explained as a working visit.
And apparently not satisfied with what it saw, the committee had disclosed that it was taking its findings to Abuja and that it was up to the House to give a verdict on the performances of the tow terminal operators there.
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