.L-R: The President of NPA Branch of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN); Comrade Ifeanyi Mazeli, the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, and President General, MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju at the end of the meeting between the NPA management and the MWUN on the warning strike on Tuesday at the NPA headquarters in Marina, Lagos.
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has again insisted that shipping companies operating in Lagos ports must have container holding bays, even as it commended the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) for suspending the warning strike that was supposed to have started on Wednesday.
In a statement issued on Wednesday and signed by Ibrahim Nasiru, NPA’s Assistant General Manager Corporate &Strategic Communications, it was confirmed that a meeting was held on Tuesday between leadership of the MWUN and the management of NPA, to avert the strike.
It confirmed that, “the withdrawal of the strike followed several hours of deliberations between the Union and the Management on Tuesday December 8, 2020”
While expressing appreciation to the MWUN, the NPA, in the statement said “failure of shipping companies to remove empty containers at the holding bay will attract sanctions”.
The statement also added, that at the meeting, NPA “reiterated the directive to all shipping companies to ensure that the size of their respective empty container holding bay is commensurate with the volume of containers they bring into the ports, in line with NPA policy on empty containers. Failure to adhere to this will attract sanctions”.
It added that, “shipping companies are to be responsible for the movement of empty containers from their holding bays to the Port. Consignees are to drop empty boxes at the designated empty container holding bays”.
“Management is working with the Lagos State Government to provide truck holding bays as part of the implementation of the e-call up system”.
“In the course of the meeting, Management of the Authority assured members of the union and other stakeholders that the problem of congestion and rent-seeking on access roads to the ports will soon become history with the scheduled deployment of an electronic-call up system for trucks in January 2021”, the statement added.
“In the interim, management is liaising with the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing for the immediate commencement of remedial works on failed portions of the port access road
“Management is partnering with the Lagos State Government to deploy law enforcement officers for the maintenance of sanity along the Port Logistic Ring”, the statement added.
However, speaking with journalists on Wednesday, the President General of the Union, Comrade Adeyanju urged the truckers’ union and other stakeholders to key into the NPA electronic truck call-up in a bid to find lasting solution to the Apapa and Tin Can traffic gridlock.
He said some of the stakeholders especially security operatives are reluctant to key into the electronic call -up system because they are benefiting from the manual call- up system of trucks.
"We all have a duty to play to support the e- call up system. For me, the union will support the idea of having an electronic call up system, because the NPA Managing Director said it is going to involve the union and other stakeholders. But some of them are not ready to key into it because of what they get from the manual system.
"We are going to advise every truck owner to key into the e- call up system. If we have a truck park in Orile, if you don't have any business doing in Mile 2, you don’t bring out your truck. It is when you have a legitimate business doing in the port that is when you can bring in your truck.
"If this is going to bring sanity and understanding among the stakeholders and the management, it will be better for us," he said.
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