Navy Attributes Gridlock  To Concessionaires,Shipping Agencies Arbitrary Charges On Trucks

The Nigerian Navy (NN) ,has attributed shipping companies and terminal operators arbitrary  charges on articulated vehicles for the gridlock crippling Apapa and its environs.

Outgoing  Commander Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) BEECROFT Rear Admiral Okon Eyo  , stated this during an interview with newsmen, shortly after handing over  to Commodore Ibrahim Shettima,on Thursday in Lagos.

Eyo said: “It was the unfair demurrage charges which were between N14,000 to N24,000 daily the shipping companies made from truck owners for empty containers that had made them not to be alive to their responsibilities.

According to him, it was unfair for the shipping companies and terminal operators to deliberately abdicate their responsibilities of taking these containers which the truckers are billed to return within stipulated period of time just to rip them off the money deposited and bill them more.

He said: “We also have problems with processes; I am talking of the sequence of doing things within the port.

“A lot of the facilities have been concessioned and people are doing legitimate businesses but with terms and conditions observed in the breach.

“The terminal operators, the shipping agencies have seriously abdicated their responsibilities.

“They were expected to have holding bays when new porters have finished with their containers, they need to deliver the empties to those holding bays for the shipping companies to organise and evacuate same in an orderly manner but this is not done.

“As if that was not enough, you will see them slapping huge demurrage and I tell you the single most challenging factor in managing the gridlock is the demurrage.

The demurrage is operated in a way that when you take your goods, they give you a few days of grace.

“Once that grace period is over, they start charging the truckers from the huge deposits they had collected in advance until they exhaust the money.

Eyo, who was chairman of the interagency taskforce on Apapa gridlock, noted that: “As if that was not enough, you will see them slamming huge demurrage and I tell you the single most challenging factor in managing the gridlock is the demurrage.