There are indications that the Nigerian Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo would be meeting with maritime stakeholders next week, including freight forwarders, truck owners and truck drivers in order to resolve the ever present Apapa gridlock.
Confirming this to Shipping Position Daily, National President of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Mr Tony Iju Nwabunike said that a letter was written to the vice president on the exploitation of truck drivers in Apapa by the Presidential Task Force controlling Apapa gridlock.
He said "there is this group of presidents; all the presidents of associations, and presidents of truck owners and drivers; we have written a letter to the presidency on this issue and it would be solved very soon"
"As a matter of fact, by next week, we should have a meeting with the Vice President of Nigeria on this issue and we have to tackle it once and for all, because our people are actually suffering"
Speaking on the leadership crisis in ANLCA, Nwabunike told our correspondent that he is now going about extending the olive branch to aggrieved members of the association.
He also said that his members have embraced the peace moves.
Nwabunike also agreed that his absence from ANLCA to contest elections in his home state has further fueled the crisis in ANLCA.
"Everybody is excited about the peace moves, people think there is no peace in ANLCA but it is not correct, it is just some few people who are trying to make things look as if we have a big problem, even husband and wife do have issues at home, the bottom line is that when you have issues, you have to deploy your internal mechanism to manage it"
"My absence from office was also not helpful on this issue, but now that I am back, everybody is excited and things would normalize"
"What we are telling them is that the house is one big family, everybody should be accommodated and I am sure they are very excited about it. Some people actually visiting me to tell me welcome back"
On the deployment of strike force team by the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali to inspect cargoes in the port, Nwabunike said his association has chosen not to be confrontational on the issue because it is very sensitive.
"We cannot go through the media to solve the problems; we have to seat down with the Customs"
"I call it a management decision, so I have written a letter to the CG of Customs and what I told him is that we are seeking an audience so that we can sit down together to know exactly what the challenges are, we would sit down to see if there could be an amendment to it, the truth of the matter is that we need to work together" he said.
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