Truck owners under the aegis of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMARTO) have postponed the strike which their association had earlier threatened to embark upon on Monday till tomorrow Thursday 29th of September 2016.
Apparently determined to co-opt more stakeholders, Chairman of AMARTO in a chat with Shipping Position Daily on Monday, also called on other port stakeholders including: NIMASA, Shippers Council, freight forwarders and terminal operators to join in the strike and make it a national issue.
AMARTO had on 15th September 2016 issued a two weeks ultimatum to the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to fix bad portions of the roads leading to the Tin Can Island Port and Apapa Port.
In a withdrawal notice dated 15th September 2016, and written to the Managing Director NPA; Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, the association lamented that due to the deplorable state of the roads, many of its members’ trucks fall daily with millions worth of cargoes on them.
Speaking with our correspondent at the end of a closed-door meeting with the NPA management on Monday, Chief Ogungbemi said the union has resolved to push the strike forward by three days. He lamented that there was no headway at the meeting that was held.
"There is no headway at the meeting, what we concluded was that it has become a national issue, so all the stakeholders including NPA, NIMASA, Shippers’ Council, freight forwarders, terminal operators should put heads together and resolve the road crisis"
"It is no longer an issue with truckers alone again and this is the conclusion”, he said.
We don't want it to be our strike as truckers, but we want it to be a national strike of all the stakeholders"
"We gave them another three days. The NPA is promising heaven and earth so we decided to give them another three days while all the stakeholders join together, even though it would take us a week, we should close the port and ensure that no truck goes in or out until the road is in order"
"We don't need to wait until the roads start killing people before we act, containers are falling every day, I am at Airways bus stop right now where another two containers fell and the situation is getting worse daily" he said.
He further lamented that due to the deplorable state of the access roads around Tin Can and Apapa Port; trucks have been falling and damaging their essential components including axles, hubs, chassis and cabins daily. He lamented that the situation is gradually liquidating truck business in the maritime industry..
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