Days after the Seaport Terminal Operators of Nigeria (STOAN) blamed clearing agents for not taking advantage of the storage free period granted by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), freight forwarders under the auspices of the Association Concerned Freight Forwarders and Logistics (ACFFL) has said that it is wrong for STOAN to blame freight forwarder for not taking advantage of the waiver.
It will be recalled that in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily, the chairman of STOAN, Princess Vicky Haastrup said contrary to what was being said, a lot of clearing agents who showed up enjoyed the free period, even as she blamed many clearing agents for refusal to take advantage of the demurrage-free grace period.
But reacting to this, the Secretary General of ACFFL, Mr. Johnny Ubaka who spoke to our correspondent in Apapa on Tuesday denied the accusations, adding that STOAN is talking of the waiver to clear cargoes that have been in the ports before the waiver.
Ubaka also reiterated that the group is campaigning for waiver as instructed by the federal government.
"The truth of the matter is that if you say freight forwarders have not been coming forward to put up claims on the demurrages it is wrong and I can also tell you that nobody is taking advantage of the waiver to clear his or her consignment in the ports"
"The waiver is clearly stated from 30th of March to April 27th although the shippers’ council is pressing for another 14days. So this is the period we are campaigning for because these are the period of lockdown and nobody has put up claims for waiver before the lockdown", he explained.
According to him, "APMT actually returned the waiver, but on the 28th of April when some of us went for our TDOs, they reversed everything. That 21days waiver that was given, they have reversed it 100%, they didn't give us back, what they did was to rate it back and that was what prompted our warning strike on Thursday, but before Monday they reversed it back again", he concluded.
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