Reps Orders Hastrup’s ENL To Return Terminal ‘C’ to Okocha’s Michelle

The battle over ownership of terminal ‘C’ at the Apapa port has taken a new dimension following confirmation that the House of Representatives committee on commercialisation and privatisation has ordered the reversal of the allotment of the controversial terminal.   The committee which is headed by Hon. Njida Gella Ahmed has ordered that the terminal be taken from ENL Consortium and handed over to Michelle Nigeria Limited, which had forwarded a petition to the National Assembly which had also conducted a public hearing on the contentious matter. Shipping Position Weekly confirmed last week that after the equally  contentious public hearing, the lawmakers has turned-in a damming report in which it queried the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) over the handling of  the concession exercise especially, that of terminals ‘C’ and ‘D’ at Apapa
port in Lagos. Prior to the public hearing, then committee had toured the ports and visited  the contentious terminals, after which its chairman directed all the parties  to appear before it at the public hearing.
Shipping Position weekly recalls that at the public hearing which held last  year, the chief executives of both ENL Consortium, Prince Adesuyi Hastrup and Michelle Nigeria Limited, Mr Peter Okocha were physically present. The duo equally made submission in addition to the submission of the director general of BPE, MrsIrene Chigbue who defended the process leading to the emergence of ENL. But, in a dramatic verdict, the committee declared that all the ground rules  governing port concession were broken in the handing over of terminal ‘C’ to ENL  and that the terminal should be handed over to Michelle. House of Representatives sources also confirmed that the verdict has also been gazetted at one of its sittings. Shipping Position Weekly however learnt that there was a sharp disagreement  between the commercialisation and privatisation committee and its marine  transport counterpart prior to adoption of the submission of the former. 
Our source hinted that the committee on marine transport did not agree with the other committee on certain issues which were not made public. A source close to one of the contending terminal operators confirmed the
development to our correspondent saying his company was awaiting further directives form the appropriate authorities.