Agents remind NPA of pledged palliative on Tincan highway, 3 months after
Three months after the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms Hadiza Bala Usman pledged to raise resources to do manageable palliative work on failed ports of Tincan Island part of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, members of the Association of Nigerian Licenced Customs Agents’ (ANLCA), have reminded Authority.
Senior Special Assistant to the Tin Can Chairman on Media and Publicity, to the Chairman of Tin Can Island Chapter of ANLCA, Akanni Balogun revealed that his chapter is in constant engagement with all shipping companies under the chapter with a possibility of claiming waivers for agents on their container deposits.
He said the assurance given by NPA about three months ago was that palliative will come within one or two months, but the third month is about to end, nothing is happening along the Tincan axis of the nation’s gateway.
According to him, “due to the bad roads leading in and out of the Tincan ports, trucks stay on queue for several days and hours before bringing back empty containers. He said that sometimes, the N150, 000 container deposits paid by the clearing agent would have depleted to N20, 000 and in most times, nothing is refunded.
“The government should be held responsible because they lag behind in handling their responsibility. After the general strike action we embarked upon three months ago, the NPA Managing Director inspected the road and assured that palliative works would begin on the road, but up till now, nothing is being done.
Balogun averred that “This has created a bad image of Nigeria in the eye of foreign investors; nobody would bring billions of dollars to invest here only for the cargo to fall down outside the port and be destroyed. We are asking the government when they would take action, but nobody is answering us”.
On creation of holding bays for empty containers, ANLCA explained that “when a vessel discharges 200 empty containers at the port, the law says it has to carry 200 empties back. This law is no longer being followed and that is why the country is littered with empty containers, we want all the government agencies to be alive to their responsibilities”.
