Few days after the publisher of BusinessDay newspapers, Frank Aigbogun, said that he paid N690, 000 per truck to carry a 40ft container of newsprint from Apapa ports to his office in Apapa, truckers have debunked the claim saying it is not possible.
Truckers groups, including the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and Corporate Fleet Owners Association, which reacted to the accusation in a chat with Shipping Position Daily last week in Apapa, charged the frontline journalist to ask his staff the whereabout of the money he claimed to have paid..
It will be recalled that in an event held last week in Apapa, Lagos, Aigbogun lamented that he spent the sum of N690, 000, for one trailer to deliver a 40ft container of the newsprint from Apapa port to his office also in Apapa.
He had told stakeholders at the event that”“I signed a cheque last week to take three containers of our newsprints for our newspaper and each trailer was N690,000 and it was like taking my blood and I am asking myself where do the monies go to?. When we started in Apapa we were paying at worst N40,000 to bring a container, it rose to N100,000 and now N690 000 for one container, who is sharing the money here. I think we can solve the problem in Apapa, we solved it in September 2019, why can’t we solve it now, why should we allow this mess to continue. And you say that the media do not know what they are doing. 10years ago, you didn’t see in the newspaper report about Apapa if you solve this problem now the newspapers will leave Apapa and face elsewhere”
Reacting to this, the Vice Chairman of NARTO, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa debunked the story saying that the contract was giving to jobbers and not directly to truck owners even as he added that moving from within Apapa shouldn’t be more than N300, 000.
“On that issue of the BusinessDay Publisher lamenting that people collected N690, 000 from him to carry a 40ft container from the ports to Apapa, I think he should not accuse the truck owner because he didn’t give the contract directly to a truck owner. Assuming he went straight to a truck owner and handed over the job directly to truck owner or an association that is when he can complain”, he stated.
Inuwa added that the money must have moved from one hand to the other before the normal amount will finally get to the truck owner.
“But, I think he gave it to someone who the contract had gone from one hand to the other. If they have a logistics department in his office, they participated in that money. At least moving from port within Apapa there should be at the range of N250, 000 to N300, 000. So this movement from one hand to the other was what made the money to move up”
Inuwa however advised that the general public to always deal with genuine truck owners and not jobbers.
“That is why I always tell people to look for a genuine truck owner and liaise with him for transport. But at times you know clearing agent and a whole lot of people will be involved. That is why we say that trucking is an industry which only God knows how many people eats out of there. There is a chain and before it comes to the final truck owner the money must have exchanged many hands they will be negotiating prices”
Also speaking, the president of Corporate Fleet owners, Mr. Leye Thompson advised the publisher to ask his staff what happened to the money, adding that it is impossible for movement within Apapa to attract that price.
“It is not possible for a trucker to collect the sum of N690, 000 for a 40ft container from ports to Apapa, the publisher should ask his staff what happened. The highest that can be collected for that movement is N300,000. The truckers are human being, let people treat them with a little bit of respect”
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