The Chairman, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Lillypond/ Ijora chapter, Rev. Emmanuel Agubanze has advocated for the revocation of the contract signed between the management of the Lillypond Container Depot and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Agubanze who made this known in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos said that this has become pertinent as the terminal’s management had failed to live up to the terms and conditions of the contract.
While calling for the vacation of the terminal by the present occupier, he however suggested that a new bidding for the terminal should be conducted by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as well as other relevant agencies of government.
He further proposed that there should be a monitoring team to monitor the activities of the concessionaires so as to check their excesses adding that absence of a regulatory agency had given room for the terminal operators to do as they like while conducting their businesses.
According to him,” what I think is this, there should be a revocation of the contract, that company that is there now should vacate the place and a new bidding should be conducted by BPE and of course NPA and other relevant government agencies.
“And again I would want to say that there should be a monitoring team, you see, you can’t do things and allow people to do as they like. What we are seeing in the concession now is that there is no supervision, no regulation, there is no regulatory body that supervises all those people that have taken over the facilities that Nigeria used its hard earned resources to build. There should be another body that will regulate, monitor and control the activities of these concessionaires”.
When asked if he was pushing for another body outside the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to act as a check on the concessionaires as obtained today, the NAGAFF Chairman had this to say,” You can see what is happening with the Shippers’ Council, they refused to be regulated by the Shippers’ Council. They took the regulator to court and Nigerians are seeing it and we are still in it up till today. Now I hear they want to use arbitration to resolve their differences but meanwhile, they have continued to increase their charges even while the matter is still in court.
“So, you can see, our government should have the political will to do the right thing. People should not be left to do as they like in a sensitive industry like the maritime industry. So, I think that is what witnessing at Lillypond where people are not monitored, they are not regulated and controlled, so they do whatever they feel like doing and nobody raises a voice.
“So, I think what should happen is to revoke the license and then conduct a new bidding and then maybe some credible companies that want to do business will take over the place”.
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