Harboursandport.com: Lagos --- The
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is to sanction shipping companies and
terminal operators who have no holding bay in compliance
with existing agreement.
 |
| Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Usman Bala |
Harboursandport.com
gathered that the hammer may start falling on defaulters from next week and this may include the withdrawal of operational license according to a
source at NPA.
According
to the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said “We may
begin to effect the sanction tomorrow or maybe next week Monday.”
Asking
what form the sanction would take, the source noted, “Offenders may
lose their licenses.”
The
threat to impose sanction is part of the resolutions adopted at the
end of two meetings between the management of NPA led by its Managing
Director, Hadiza Bala Usman and the leadership of Truck drivers and
Maritime Workers Union in response to recent protests by trucks
drivers at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) and Tin Can Island Port
(TCIP).
In
a statement made available to Harboursandport.com yesterday,
Assistant General Manager, Corporate and strategic communications,
Mallam Isa Suwaid, said NPA has launched an investigation into the
level of compliance or non-compliance to the agreement warning that
“any company found to have contravened this agreement will be
sanctioned”.
On
the newly adopted call-up system for trucks accessing the port, the
statement noted that Usman explained that NPA had consulted widely
with all stakeholders before the introduction of the system, adding
that the system has proved to be the most effective way of managing
traffic in the Apapa axis till date.
Commenting
on complaints of allegation of extortion by some security agencies,
the NPA boss assured that the Authority would investigate the
allegation and culprits would be made to face the appropriate
provision of the law.
Both
the chairman of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Chief
Remi Ogungbemi and President-General of Maritime Workers Union of
Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Adeyanju Waheed, expressed their support for
the call-up system now in place for the trucks, adding that the
system has sanitized traffic congestion in the Apapa axis.
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