As the plans to find a lasting solution to the traffic gridlock along Oshodi-Apapa expressway continues, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has accused shipping companies and truckers of insubordination.
The National President of ANLCA, Mr. Tony Iju Nwabunike, who said this yesterday during an interview on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) programme ‘Good Morning Nigeria’, also lamented that the shipping companies operating at the nations seaports have taken laws into their hands.
He explained that they don't want to be in tune with the government procedures on operations in the ports, even as he added that the truckers have refused to understand that the roads are not for their personal use.
"The shipping companies have taken the laws into their hands, they don't have holding bays and they don't have anywhere to put their containers and they don't even want to be in line with the government procedures according to import guidelines and operations in the ports. The problem we are having is that most of these truck drivers refused to understand that these roads are purely for everybody. They use all these roads according to what they want to do with it even when the task force was formed", he noted.
He also called for a lasting solution to the traffic problem along the road.
"We need to provide a long term solution to this problem, my members are actually suffering, we are in fight with truck owners, drivers and even the terminal operators and the shipping companies.
The problem we are having is that nobody respects government policies in the ports. Last time, precisely 7th of June this year we called them for a meeting at our secretariat with truck owners"
"We wanted to know exactly how to get these problems sorted out and we discussed with them very well and told them that we will need to have empty containers holding bays, they now told us they don't have it. So what we did was to call some of our members who are having bonded terminals who have some little areas to stack the empty containers. And we had an agreement with these bonded terminals, and we wrote a letter to NPA and the Managing Director was very magnanimous to tell them to use these holding bays", he explained further.
He also lamented that the truckers are being extorted by task force using the call-up system.
According to him, "they call- up of the containers from the holding bays or wherever they are to go and discharge at the port is another problem. The drivers are always complaining that the task force officials are always asking the for bribes before they go into the terminal. So most times before they off- load the containers, they will pay from N50, 000 upwards, otherwise you will be on the line for a long time. And another thing is also very clear, even the transporters have so many associations so they can’t speak with one voice and they refuse to understand that the federal government has given orders and we want enforcement in this order"
Mr. Nwabunike also called for proper enforcement mechanism to be put in place to ensure maximum compliance.
Discussion about this post