After about eight months respite, the largest terminal in Nigeria, if not the whole of Africa, AP Moller Terminal otherwise known as APMT, Apapa in Lagos state of Nigeria is in the news again probably not for a good reason with the truckers recently protesting the delays in they go through in an attempt to lift containers from the terminal occasioned by what they called obsolete equipment at the terminal.
It can be recalled that it was exactly eight months ago that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) raised an alarm over what it called a misleading information dished out to Nigerians by the Management of the terminal when it claimed that it had put up a multimillion Naira, World class physical examination bay for the Nigeria Customs Service which it abandoned.
The heat generated by the development at that time was so enormous that it attracted the attention of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime Services, Mr. Leke Oyewole, the Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Dr. Inde Dikko Abdullahi and finally, the then Minister of National Planning, Dr. Shamsudeen Usman who at one time other paid on the spot assessment visit to the terminal with the aim of brokering peace in the the restive premier port.
After that incident, all appeared to be working fine at the terminal until the placard carrying truckers struck again thereby suspending all trucking activities for two days at the terminal.
The aggrieved truckers called on the federal government to monitor the alleged excesses of the APMT as according to them, the terminal operator lacked efficiency adding that the delays experienced at the port overtime was as a result of poor infrastructure on the part of the terminal operator especially as it concerned handling of containers that were due to exit the terminal.
Some of the placards carried by the truckers read,” APMT have failed Nigerians”, “APMT must go before we work again”, “APMT equipment are all obsolete”, “We are tired of APMT activities”, “Compare to other terminals like TICT, Ports and Cargo, APMT is not functioning amongst others as they chant solidarity songs, calling the attention of the government to their plight.
One of the drivers and a Member of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Comrade Frank Ohaeri who spoke to journalists said that there was the need for the government to terminate the APMT’s contract alleging that most of the equipment at the terminal had collapsed with only one staff handling four machines thereby slowing down the pace of lifting containers from the terminal.
According to him,” APMT is killing the industry and that is why we want them to go. It takes three days for a truck to load, they a re the ones causing the traffic on the roads apart from the bad roads. APMT have no workers, they have no machines and it is only one of the machines that is working and all the congestion experienced at Apapa is caused b y APMPT”.
It will be recalled that the truckers under the aegis of the Joint Council of Seaport Truckers (JCOST) staged protest twice last year against the pains suffered by their members while trying to return empty containers to the APM Terminal, an action which attracted the Lagos Ports Complex management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) led by the the Port Manager, Mr. Nasir Abass Mohammed to broker peace.
As if that was not enough, while the truckers were staging their protest, the following conversations in a text message between a freight forwarder and former Deputy National Coordinator, Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, Importers and Exporters Coalition, (SNIFFIEC), Comrade Stephen Ibe and the Chief Commercial Officer of APMT, Mr. Neil Fletcher hit the handset of our correspondent.
Comrade Stephen Ibe, “ too much problems in APMT, your terminal, Trucks with flat bodies for delivery not allowed to enter APMT for delivery. Containers not scanned on time since 10/7/14. Container Nos. GLDU 7621530, HMCU9046640, TCNU5806078, BMOU5018940, BMOU5280884, EISU91873593, FSCU9819267 have not been scanned till today 17/7/14 and these containers are in your terminal and shipping companies incurring demurrage for you”.
“We will not pay these demurrage rather you will pay us damages. From Importers Association of Nigeria. You will hear from our lawyers. This must stop. Thanks”.
Mr. Neil Fletcher of APMT, “ the truckers are on strike”.
Comrade Stephen Ibe, “ yes, it’s because of your ill treatment to them. They demanded that you put in writing that you allow them in for delivery but you refused. I am sending these to the Press also so that the whole world will hear what Nigerians are suffering in your hands”.
Curiously, our correspondent quickly called the number and booked for an interview appointment which he willingly obliged and the interview was scheduled for the following day.
During the course of the interview, Comrade Stephen Ibe collaborated the stories told by the truckers as their reasons for embarking on the two day strike action pending when the federal government looked into their plights.
He accused the officials of NPA, the Port Police and the officials of the terminal of extorting some amount of money totaling seven thousand Naira each from truckers before they were allowed entry into the terminal.
According to him,” what they do is, I mean APMT, is to allow containers stay in their terminals incurring demurrage. If trucks with flat bodies want to go inside their terminal to take delivery of containers, they don’t allow them to enter AP Moller terminal”.
“Then in the process of that, before your truck will go into the AP Moller terminal, NPA officials are there with the police and before they will allow your truck in, you must spend close to seven thousand Naira”.
”Now, what I am hearing from truck owners is that the money has skyrocketed again to two thousand Naira. That is when there is no problem. You must give them bribe of two thousand Naira to load your container inside AP Moller terminal, failure to do that, they will not load your container”.
He further alleged that the terminal had no forklift to load containers and that if they were offloading containers from the ships that berthed at the terminal, they no longer attend to truckers who were already in the terminal to take delivery of containers until they were through with offloading the ships, citing lack of equipment as being responsible for the trend.
He did not stop there as he disclosed that the management of the terminal coded their systems that when you rate your container for scanning and it happened that there was delay on account of the terminal’s management or any other factor outside the making of the importer or his agent, the terminal would still go ahead and subject the agent to pay demurrage for no fault of his describing it as the height of wickedness.
“They are not here to serve Nigerians rather they are interested in collecting demurrage. They pray that containers accumulate so that they will collect demurrage. They are not doing anything but are part of the problem”, he said.
He stated that contrary to the claims by the Management of the terminal that they were not responsible for scanning of containers, the management was shifting blames to the Nigeria Customs Service adding that that the Service was not to be blame as it could only scan containers that the terminal operator had positioned for it to scan.
Comrade Ibe went on to allege that the terminal operator connived with the shipping companies to rip off Nigerians that even when they claimed to have waived some charges for the agents, they turn round and collect same from the shipping companies’ demurrage and when confronted, they would claim they had no power over the shipping companies thereby making life unbearable for the agents.
While calling on the Management of APMT to borrow a leaf from other terminals like the Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) and Ports and Terminals Multiservices Limited (PTML) who he said acquired new equipment to transfer and drop containers within the terminal thereby making room for prompt and efficient service delivery, he however blamed the leaders of the freight forwarding associations in the industry for not doing enough to mitigate their sufferings in the hands of the APMT .
He therefore threatened to seek redress in the court for having lost three of his clients due to the delays and incessant charges slammed on him by the authorities of the terminal.
On his part, the spokesman of APMT, Apapa, Mr. Bolaji Akinola blamed the problem on the inability of the government to expand the existing access roads to the ports thereby causing traffic gridlock which in turn put the truckers through unnecessary hardship while trying to find their way to the ports.
Mr. Akinola observed that lack of truck terminal within the ports environment where these truckers after traveling a long way could park their trucks and rest for a while before heading for the ports thereby making the truckers to park their vehicles on the roads thus making it impossible for those who are on appointment at the port to find their way to the ports.
He disclosed that at the terminal, he Management always keep a truck schedule which they adhered to and that any trucker who missed his schedule would not be allowed entry into the terminal unless he was rescheduled even as he said that due to the traffic gridlock, many truckers who missed their schedules, on getting at the terminal and they were told that they would not enter having missed their time would misunderstand the management and pick offense.
According to him, “ I understand the problem of the truckers, most of them come from Sokoto, some from all over Nigeria. They drive to come to the port, inside the port, for our own terminal, we have schedule. A truck cannot wake up tomorrow and enter. If we allow that, inside the terminal will be locked up”.
“Now my brother, because of gridlock, you know that a lot of them would be missing their appointments. This is where the confusion lie and we try to manage it”.
“Inside that terminal, by the time you have sixty trucks that are not supposed to be there, if they enter, that is the end of the terminal, everybody will come and blame us that we are not managing the traffic flow properly. That is why we are restricting”.
He however said that truckers protest was not peculiar to the terminal as according to him,it happens all over the world including America contending that wherever there was a commercial operation of that magnitude, there was no way one can satisfy everybody.
He maintained that disputes were bound to occur as they were important factor in drawing attention of the management to areas it was not doing well adding that what was important was that the disputes were amicably resolved in the end.
Speaking on the lack of equipment leveled against the terminal, Mr. Akinola had this to say, “ there is no terminal in West Africa that has the equipment that APMT has. I am not just talking about Nigeria, in West Africa. We have twenty-two Rubber Tyre Gantry (RTG) cranes. Before the last quarter of last year, we had twelve, between the last quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, ten brand new ones came’.
He dismissed insinuations that the terminal had no forklift saying that the terminal had no need for forklift as that was obtainable during the era of NPA even as he argued that what one RTG can do, ten forklifts cannot do them.
“We have 17 other dedicated plants for handling empty containers. Inside APM terminal there, we have 75 trucks, those flat bed trucks which we bought brand new, not second hand, for moving containers to the physical examination and to scanning “.
He however admitted that it was possible that one or two of them broke down but not that the terminal don’t have equipment.
On the allegation that the terminal officials collect between one and two thousand Naira before they could load containers on the trucks, Mr. Akinola denied any knowledge of the act and promised to investigate the allegation and that once the allegation was proven to be true, that the Management would not hesitate to throw the erring staff out adding that all the payment at the terminal were receipted.
On the threat by Comrade Stephen Ibe to go to court, he said.” Honestly, i don’t begrudge people who talk, they have every right as Nigerians to lay complain. If they want to go to court, they have every right, I even prefer people should go to court than take laws into their own hands”.
But will this be the last protest against APMT? Only time will tell.
However,there is a popular saying that there is no smoke without fire. It is either the stakeholders are crying wolves when there is none or that the terminal operator, in this case APMT is playing smart otherwise there should be no reason why this problem could keep recurring.
The question is, why is it always APMT at least in the last two years? Could it be that there is something the company is not doing well or could it be that all these crisis are being engineered or sponsored by some people who do not like the company masquerading as truckers and agents in order to score a cheap political points?
Obviously, which ever may be the case, there is the need for the Management of APM terminal Apapa and the stakeholders to look for a means of sitting at a round table and lay all the issues on the table with a view to fashioning out a permanent solution to this bickering that is fast becoming a tradition in the industry.
Also, the Management of APMT should understand that either, the negative publicity being given to it by the stakeholders is not good for the company as a business concern and therefore should look inwards with a view to finding where it is missing it and improve on them.
Stakeholders on their part, instead of protesting and embarking on frequent strikes should proffer some solutions to the company on ways to better the operations of the terminal operators to improve efficiency and improve prompt service delivery while the government should play its own role and not abdicating its function to its citizens and contracts thereby watching things deteriorate. One good turn they say, deserve another.
