The Vice Chairman, Presidential Task Team on Restoration of Law and Order in Apapa; Me Kayode Opeifa has accused barge operators of flooding the terminals in Apapa with more cargoes than they have capacity to handle.
Opeifa who said this in an interview with Shipping Position Daily in Apapa, complained that most times, the terminals over flow with cargoes, a development which impede vehicular movement.
He advised barge operators to ensure that they bring in the number of cargoes that can be properly accommodated at the terminals.
Opeifa, nevertheless explained that over-feeding the ports beyond capacity, makes the Lillypond truck transit park ineffective.
He warned barge operators to ensure that containers are taken to designated terminals and not to somewhere else, thereby littering the port.
Talking directly to barge operators, he said: “When we will have issues with you is when you start bringing barges and blocking the whole port, they will now be bringing in more barges that cannot be accommodated. So when you do that, it means Lilypond will not work; that is the side effect. So we now told APMT to operate the barge trucks at night, when no trucks are coming except manufacturing, it is APMT that runs those container stuff”
“So if you want to move a barge, you should go to the terminal that you are taking it to, not to somewhere else. NPA with the terminal operators have regularize how it happens inside the ports”
He also faulted allegations by barge operators that the team has been frustrating their activities, he said he has never met any group of barge operators, adding that his work is to manage traffic on the roads.
“I have never met any group called barge operators, my own is to manage traffic and it is to manage the traffic by roads, so if you can move your goods by barges it is good for me. I believe this is good in a multimodal transport system”, he explained.
According to the former Lagos state commissioner, “you move containers to the ports, not truck, so you don’t need to move your trucks to the ports, go and drop your containers at Mile 2 on the barge and let it be moved to the ports. The other option is to do RORO; to move your truck and container to the port, so that truck will help you to move your consignments out of the ports while taking your old container at the port”, he said.
Meanwhile in his reaction, the president of Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN); Mr Edeme Kelikume explained that before a barge proceeds to the ports; it must have got a call up to come, adding that barges can not go to the ports without a booking.
“It is impossible; there is no way any barge will go to any port without the port issuing call up to the barge operator. When the barge cargo gets to the ports, the terminal operator has to off load the barge. So if you don’t have a booking to visit the terminal, you don’t go. So saying that the terminals are mostly filled with cargos from the barge is unfounded” he said.
Also speaking, a barge operator, Mr. Yinka Bakare said that every functioning port in the world encourages barge movement.
He said that using barges for cargo movement reduces the number of trucks plying the roads, thereby making the roads to last longer.
“Every functioning port in the world encourages barge movement to go as far as hinterlands and even some landlocked countries use barge as a mean of moving cargoes to wherever the cargoes are going. What the barge is going to do is to reduce the number of trucks plying the roads and it makes the roads to last longer. A barge will take the container closer and trucks will take it to the warehouse that is the function of most of the barges”
Apparently putting holes in the allegation by Mr Opeifa, he said, “which terminal operator is complaining that barges are flooding the terminals with cargoes? You can imagine a barge taking 200 containers away from the port at a time, that is like taking 200 trucks off the road. So anybody that is saying that the barge operators are flooding the terminals with cargos does not know what he is saying and as a matter of fact, he is not a maritime person” he concluded.
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