The Vice Chairman, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Apapa Chapter, Mr. Chukwujekwu Kanu has said that the recent withdrawal of service embarked upon by the freight forwarders operating at Apapa ports were beneficial in many aspects contrary to insinuations in some quarters that the action was fruitless.
Recall that the freight forwarders operating at Apapa ports under the aegis of Joint Associations Committee recently withdrew their service at the AP Moller and ENL terminals accusing the managements of the two terminals of shortchanging them as well as charging money for services not rendered.
Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently, Kanu said that the strike succeeded in getting the shipping companies to provide a holding bay where all their returning empty containers should be taken to and not necessarily bringing them back to the port thus reducing the volume of traffic on the port access roads.
He also said that the bonded terminals were now back to life booming with activities as most of the trucks which had nothing to do with Apapa port now go there for business.
According to him,” so, you go and check Apapa port, check the traffic situation, check the port operation, now the drivers can go inside, load with their TDOs till 12 noon the next day. Most of the trucks that they were supposed to turn back to come and queue, they have twelve hours of grace. That means that once you enter inside the port, you load unlike before once it is 12 noon, they will turn you back. That is why you see every truck is moving”.
“Go to the bonded terminals, they are filled up now, a lot of activities are being taken to the bonded terminals. Go to the terminals, that is why most of these trucks that have nothing to do with this place are now there. Before, everything was here in Apapa but because of the strike, they have taken most of the boxes to Lillypond, to sifax, Denca, Delmas, Migfo, most of these bonded terminals were lying fallow before”.
“But now, activities are going on everywhere, the Customs, the terminal operators, the number of agents coming to Apapa have reduced because most of them are there doing their jobs. These are the benefits of the strike, without the strike, they will keep on piling all the containers in Apapa port meanwhile, we have bonded terminals here”.
“So, anybody that is saying that we did not achieve anything during the strike doesn’t know what he or she is saying. The achievement of this strike may not be visible now because the people are feeling pains but tomorrow, it will come down because when the goods start flowing, two days, you take your goods out of the ports without delay. From January, watch it”.
He however observed that on their part as an association, they were helping the terminal operators in their own little bit, going round to see which of the bonded terminals was in good condition, to assess their facilities so as to make recommendations to their members in order to save them from sufferings in the hands of the bonded terminal operators.
