The Nigerian Ports Authourity (NPA) has threatened to come hard on any shipping companies or terminal operator which reneges on agreement they entered into with the agency on the usage of holding bays for containers.
The decision to sanction the shipping lines and terminal operators was part of the resolutions adopted at the end of two meetings between the Managing Director NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman and the leadership of Truck drivers and Maritime Workers Union in response to recent protests by trucks drivers at the Lagos ports.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that, the agreement which was reached in November, 2017 between the Shipping Companies, Terminal Operators and the NPA, compelled all shipping companies and terminal operators to provide holding bays for their trucks and containers through the newly adopted call-up system.
But, a statement issued yesterday by the NPA and signed by its Assistant General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communication; Mr Isah Suwaid disclosed that the Managing Director of NPA; Hadiza Bala Usman informed the meeting on Wednesday that the agency has launched an investigation into the level of compliance or non-compliance to the agreements, even as she warned that “any company found to have contravened this agreement will be sanctioned”.
On the newly adopted call-up system for trucks accessing the port, Hadiza Usman explained that the NPA had consulted widely with all stakeholders before the introduction of the system, adding that the system has proven to be the most effective way of managing traffic in the Apapa axis till date.
Commenting on complaints of the allegation of extortion by some security agencies, the Managing Director assured that the NPA would investigate the allegation and culprits would be made to face the appropriate provision of the law.
Both the chairman of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Chief Remi Ogungbemi and the President-General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) Comrade Adewale Adeyanju while expressing their support for the call-up system now in place for the trucks, said that the system has sanitized traffic congestion on the Apapa axis.
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