The former Chairman, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tincan Island Chapter, Dr. Kayode Farinto has described the withdrawal of Services by the freight forwarders working at Apapa port from AP Moller Terminal and ENL shipping as long overdue.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen in Lagos on Thursday, Dr. Farinto expressed his happiness over the ability of the various associations to come together to protect the interests of the freight forwarders and the entire citizens of Nigeria.
He lamented that APMT was in the habit of extorting and exploiting Nigerians as a result of the support it enjoyed from those he described as elites in the country.
According to him,”What I can only tell you is that it is long overdue. I am happy now that the various associations are coming together to protect the interests of our members and the larger community as a whole”.
“AP Moller is a monster in the industry, AP Moller is in the habit of extorting and exploiting Nigerians maybe as a result of the support that they have from the elites they have been doing it with impunity. So, the strike that you are now seeing or the withdrawal of services, whichever one, is long overdue”.
The former Chairman disclosed that his personal investigations revealed that the Management of APMT had been avoiding the leadership of the associations who had tried their best to avert this ugly incidence by calling for meetings for which the Managing Director kept shunning.
“So, he has been stylishly avoiding them, dribbling them, thinking he is smart, believing that he has the Federal Might that will support him. That is the main thing because I was duly informed that yesterday night (Wednesday), he started mounting pressure on the Police and they started saying that they should open their terminal. We are not saying you should not open your terminal but our members will not work in your terminal”, he said.
He therefore warned that no terminal was insulated against the action of the freight forwarders as they were dealing with APMT adding that what was happening was a revolution as according to him,” it is not only going to be APMT alone, it will spill over to other terminals who are not conforming and they believed they can always use the Federal might to intimidate people”.
