The President, Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporations (SSACTAC), Maritime branch, Comrade Benson Adegbeyeni has raised the alarm over alleged plans to privatize ancillary services in the Nigerian Ports Authority, even as he described it as a fraudulent attempt by some individuals to rip the nation off.
He also disclosed that four firms are currently bidding to take over the jobs, and alleged that the companies are neither registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) nor have existing offices in Nigeria.
The President, Senior Staff Association of Communications, Transport and Corporations (SSACTAC), Maritime branch, Comrade Benson Adegbeyeni has raised the alarm over alleged plans to privatize ancillary services in the Nigerian Ports Authority, even as he described it as a fraudulent attempt by some individuals to rip the nation off.
He also disclosed that four firms are currently bidding to take over the jobs, and alleged that the companies are neither registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) nor have existing offices in Nigeria.
The workers’ President revealed this to our correspondent in Lagos, even as he maintained that he has been at loggerheads with the management of NPA over the planned privatization of pilotage, towage and mooring services, that are currently being carried out by the staff of NPA a third party.
He however added that the companies bidding to take over the jobs have no requisite facilities as they are requesting to lease or hire NPA equipment to start the job, adding that some of the companies are even proposing to buy the equipment as scraps.
He alleged further that, the firms which claim to have been doing the job before are traceable to some government officials who intend to use them to siphon government money into their private pockets.
He stated that the services that are to be concessioned are the core services being performed by NPA and if given out, it could lead to retrenchment of workers , adding that it is compulsory that the services be provided by the NPA as it is done in other parts of the world.
The maritime SSACTAC boss further disclosed that the companies bidding for the contract do not have records with Corporate Affairs Commission adding that they do not have human faces.
“I took the names of the companies they want to give the contracts to the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), I discovered that they are not registered, the addresses they give in Lagos are not existent.”
He mentioned the companies to include: Messrs. CTOW in association with Bonny Channel Management (BCC), Belgium which is billed to take over Onne port, Rivers state; Messrs. Slowater Nigeria Ltd in association with G.O. Marine Group West Australia to take over Port Harcourt port.
Others are: Messrs. Ibejide Services Ltd in association with Jedranski Pomoskl Services, D.D. Rijeka, Republic of Croatia to take over Delta ports, Warri and Messrs. Global Spectrum Energy Services Ltd in association with Topaz Energy Marine, Dubai, Middle East and Damen Tugs and Workboats, Netherlands to take over Calabar ports.
Adegbeyeni querried the management of NPA over the sudden moves to give out the job that the agency has been doing since inception to a third party even when the concession agreement opposes such arrangement.
Speaking further, he said “We went round the ports when I opposed it, I collected all the agreements, I studied them and I said no, this is fraud."
" Tell me, you give birth to a child and you say the child has suddenly known better than you in a job that you have been doing before you gave birth to the child.
“In fact, the concession agreement of 2006 states clearly that the core jobs of NPA will not be given out, but because the engineering, marketing, tally clerks have all been given out, they still want to give out these ones".
“If you go inside the port, it was not like this when NPA was managing it, there was orderliness unlike now that everywhere is littered with trucks and you cannot enter Apapa."
Meanwhile, Adegbeyeni said that NPA is only frustrating the services in the port in order to be able to carry out its agenda of privatizing the services.
“All these are attempts to call a dog all sorts of names in order to kill it and eat it.”
He said, in working visits to some ports in company of some management staff, it was discovered that the reason some of the tug boats and other equipment are not working is because they are not being properly managed by the management of NPA.
He said at Calabar port, the reason the tug boats have not been working was because the port manger refused to give money for fuel for about ten months and the tug boat capsized where it was tied and eventually sank.
He added that similar development was obtained in Port Harcourt and Onne ports where they also visited during the facility tour, adding that in Warri, despite the fact that there was no tug boat, the workers still manage to berth vessels.
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