The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Goldlink Investment Limited, Sir Tony Anakebe has taken a swoop on the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) calling them barking dogs that cannot bite in the Nigerian maritime sector.
Anakebe who made this assertion while speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos over the recent increase in the terminal charges of the various terminal operators in the nation’s seaport stated that the terminal operators were now law unto themselves as they no longer abide by the agreement they signed at the inception of the concession era.
While contending that nobody was in control of the terminal operators, he added that the organizational structure of the Nigerian Maritime sector did not give the practitioners to believe that anybody was in charge most of the time describing it as the major problem of the maritime sector in Nigeria.
Anakebe who is a Knight of the Catholic Church attested to the fact that the terminal operators had effected increment in their charges as alleged even when there was a subsisting case in the court of law over charges describing it as an act of sabotage and contempt of court.
According to him,” The concessionaires are the laws now because they have taken possession. They don’t talk about any agreement or caveat as at now. I pity them somehow now because the economic hardship is affecting them too but even at that, they are still making profit because the concession is a long term investment. It is not a short term one, but what they want now is to make gains as rapidly as possibly which are not for the betterment of our importers.
“So, we are hoping that they will soon understand if the Minister of Transportation is serious on his words, that a lot of stakeholders’ meeting has been called and he is calling for more stakeholders’ meeting to discuss about everything in the maritime sector. We are hoping to raise it before him because definitely, the concessionaires have taken the bull by the horn. They don’t consult before doing anything; they could not obey a simple court order that asked them not to increase.
“It is an act of sabotage, so, who is now controlling the concessionaires? Is it the NPA or the Nigerian Shippers’ council? Nobody! In fact, the organizational structure of the Nigerian maritime sector sometimes, it doesn’t give us the leverage to believe that somebody is in-charge most of the times and that is the major problem of the maritime sector.
“Nobody is in charge, the shipping companies do things their own way, the terminal operators do things their own way. NPA and the Shippers’ Council are there barking like dogs that cannot bite. Something is in court and you went behind and increased your charges, is the court sleeping? Can’t somebody go back to the court and say these people have committed contempt of court. Nobody for now has reacted in respected to that court order”.
On what the new charges are, Anakebe stated thus,” The terminal handling charge at APMT for 1×40 initially is N67, 000 but now they have increased it to almost N120, 000. So, most of them have increased, PTML have also increased”.
He insisted that the increment was uncalled for at the moment following the economic situation in the country wondering what would be the fate of the importers who he said needed encouragement rather than uncharitable increment.
“Nigeria bound cargoes are now coming through Cotonou, even Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, none is coming through our ports and most of these goods come into the country through the bush. So, the nation is totally loosing now. People must find their way in order to do their business. If you go to the terminals, you see our customs men fully dressed, ready to work but there is no work to do and you must pay them their salaries. The revenue collection by customs has dwindled so much because goods are no longer coming to the country through the Nigerian ports”, he said.
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