The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria has threatened to shut down the nation’s seaport if the Nigeria Port Authority [NPA] and the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency [NIMASA] fails to address illegal activities of multinationals on the nation’s territorial waters.
President General of [MWUN] Comrade Anthony Nted Emmanuel made the threat at a fund raising event for one of the union’s deceased member; late comrade Isa Ibrahim Salem in Lagos last weekend.
The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria has threatened to shut down the nation’s seaport if the Nigeria Port Authority [NPA] and the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency [NIMASA] fails to address illegal activities of multinationals on the nation’s territorial waters.
President General of [MWUN] Comrade Anthony Nted Emmanuel made the threat at a fund raising event for one of the union’s deceased member; late comrade Isa Ibrahim Salem in Lagos last weekend.
Nted vowed that if the two maritime agencies do not measure up towards ensuring that the dockworkers and seafarers are engaged in the ports, there will be no operation at the ports.
He warned shipping companies and multinationals that, ‘’any vessels that is coming into the country should come direct to the conventional ports and any vessels that do not come direct to the port is going against the ministry of transport of the country which is a breakdown of law’’.
He further stressed that, ‘’any time that we notice multinational discharging offshore and run away and the Nigeria Port Authority and Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency [NIMASA] do not address the issue of the illegalities, we are going to shutdown the ports’’.
The MWUN boss also lamented that the activities of the multinational have rendered most of their members being jobless, adding that it has also made the country to lose huge revenue that ought to go into government’s coffers.
He however called on the federal government to live up to its responsibilities to the workers and the nation, adding that otherwise the ports will experience industrial unrest.
“The illegal activities have deprived dockworkers from performing their duty and also the Nigeria seafarers are suffering, nobody is addressing the situation and as it is, if the federal government does not meet up with their responsibility we are going to run a zig zag port which means we will close the port down and that is a promise’’.
‘’We are talking about unemployment ,the maritime industry is also talking about unemployment because vessels are not coming into the ports, but what we are seeing in the industry is an eyesore especially with the shipping companies on offshore ,whereby they offload midstream and run away, this is a big problem that needs urge attention by the federal government.’’ Nted lamented.
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