The pains and cries of port users and other stakeholders in the maritime sector have remained loud over the gridlock, extortion by security officials at the ports. At several fora, stakeholders have not failed to highlight the economic haemorrhage the unscrupulous activities of these officials is causing the country. But last week, members of the House of Representatives took a bold step towards restoring sanity to the port access roads in Lagos. The House not only called for the disbandment of the Presidential Task Team on port access roads, saying it has outlived its usefulness for its role in extortion and congestion of the ports. Will this bring the much-needed sanity to the ports? MUYIWA LUCAS reports.
The Nigerian economy now in recession needs every sector to be on its toes to ensure the economy does not collapse. If there is any sector managers of the economy are hopeful of playing a prominent role in bailing the country out with revenue injection, then it is the maritime sector. And rightly so. With the crude oil sector remaining largely unpredictable, the maritime sector, referred to as “The Blue Economy” is expected to step up to this revenue challenge.
But hopes of the country generating greater revenue from the maritime sector faces a huge challenge. This is because of the lingering hydra headed gridlock that has continued unabated, defying all solutions at the port access roads in Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports, both in Lagos. This situation has further been compounded with the extortion at the Tin Can Island Port (TCIP) and its surrounding access roads leading to the vehicular spillage spilled into the port access roads on daily basis. This, it is believed, now account for higher cost of freighting cargoes into the country.
But the problems in the Nigerian ports has made international shipping lines to take advantage of importers who are now charged heavily for freighting, especially from the Far East. For instance, checks have revealed that shipping companies now charge between $5, 000 and $6,000 to bring in a container to the country. This represents a sharp increase over what obtained in the first half of the year, when shipping lines charged $1,000 to freight a 20-foot container to the country from places like the Asian continent.
The increase in cost, experts say, is not unconnected with the difficulties encountered in cargo discharge, leading to greater dwell time of vessels in the major ports in Apapa and TCIP, both in Lagos.
Last week, the SIFAX Group, owners of Port and Cargo Handling Services (PCHS) Limited, raised the alarm over 40 vessels are currently trapped at the Lagos anchorage due to the deplorable state of the port access road linking Tin can Island Port.
According to the PCHS Managing Director, Mr. John Jerkins, the terminal records 8,000 Twenty-feet Equivalent Unit (TEUs) monthly despite the deplorable state of the road. However, the inability for vessels to discharge containers and allow others berth poses serious threat to port business.
“I don’t know the number of vessels that are currently at the anchorage now but I know it is well above 40 vessels right there at sea. At least for Ports and Cargo we have about six to seven of our vessels stranded at the Lagos anchorage due to the state of the roads,” Jerkins lamented.
Indeed, the parlous state of the port access roads, especially around TCIP, has not helped matters, as the continued blockage of the roads has left several containers trapped in the ports complex. In this instance, vessels have had to remain at anchorage for months, due to lack of space to discharge their cargoes, thereby incurring several surcharges in the process.
Jerkins admitted that there were more containers to be moved outside the terminal due to the congestion but lamented that the firm is handicapped to address the situation of the road. While expressing frustration of the roads on port business, Jerkins explained that PCHS does six to eight barging operations daily, adding that it takes two hours to move 20 containers out of the terminal through barging. Jerkins urged government to provide palliative along the second gate round about axis, where a 35meter stretch portion needs urgent attention to allow free flow of vehicles out of the port.
Now, officials and security personnel of various agencies are taking advantage of the situation to illegally enrich themselves while inflicting pains on port users and other stakeholders in the industry.
These personnel, mainly drawn from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Security Department, police and the Presidential Task Team on Apapa gridlock, who were deployed to manage traffic in the area, are now at the behest of extortion, especially from truck drivers trying to access or exit from the TCIP.
To this end, importers, clearing agents and truck owners are now screaming to the roof top over worsening gridlock along the port access road at the TCIP Complex, accusing officials of the various security outfits of complacence. It is a strongly held belief that in addition to the poor condition of the port access roads, extortion by security and traffic control officials remain the major cause of the unending gridlock along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.
Some truck drivers who expressed frustration over the development accused officials of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Security Department, the police and the Presidential Task Team on Apapa gridlock of demanding huge sums of money as bribes from them before their trucks are granted access into the port. The development has negatively affected port operations by slowing down cargo delivery. It has also led to a sudden rise in haulage and shipping cost. For instance, haulage cost from TCIP to any other part of Lagos state now cost between N100, 000 to about N1.2 million- representing over 1, 000 percent rise.
This sharp increase, investigation revealed, is to make up for the extortion of truck drivers by the security personnel, who have put in place a well-structured racket system, which ensures that no truck leaves the port or enters without greasing the palms of the security personnel, parting with between N70,000 and N200,000 per truck.
A truck owner and an executive member of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), Mr. Sanni Bala, said the security agents would not grant them access to the ports unless they pay between N70, 000 and N200, 000 depending on the “bargaining power” of the truck driver. As a result, many truckers have been left with nothing to take home and maintain their trucks.
AMATO is further miffed that the Lagos State government keeps complaining of rickety trucks on the roads, forgetting that the extortion they are being subjected to by the police and others is taking a toll on their income.
“The issue of unlawful extortion by NPA security officials, police and the Presidential Task Team along Apapa and Tin Can Port road axis has become a daily occurrence and an institutionalised phenomenon that is taking a serious toll on the income of truck owners and exacerbating the plight of motorists on that axis. The issue of traffic on the access road is artificial and caused by human factor because without the traffic, there is no how they can extort people; so they have to create the traffic by delaying truckers,” he added.
The Chairman of AMATO, Chief Remi Ogungbemi, agreed with Bala. According to him, “What is happening at Tin Can is a situation of the more you look, the less you see. Business is still going on as usual and the task team has refused to leave because they are benefiting from the chaos. They have formed a cartel and if you are not in that group, they will not pass your truck no matter who you are.”
The Nation’s findings reveal that the modus operandi deployed by the security personnel on is more like an undercover. Security personnel employ the services of miscreants, known as “Kelebe” or “Camp Boys” for the collection of the illegal money; they also hand over monies collected themselves to their respective kelebe. With this, at no point in time will cash of questionable amount be found on any of them. Sharing of the day’s proceed is then done later at night when the personnel would have closed for the day.
A clearing agent at the TCIP, Mr. Chudi Nwankwo, identified more than four roadblocks set up by the Presidential Task Team, the police and NPA Security officials all between TCIP First and Second Gates, as spots where each truck is expected to part with money before being allowed passage into the port.
“The extortion by NPA and other security agencies who claim to be controlling traffic on the road is the cause of the impediment we are experiencing daily along the port access road. From First Gate to Second Gate, we have about four roadblocks mounted by the security agents and the trucks must part with money before they can move. As we speak, we pay between N1.1 million and N1.2 million per truck as against N100,000 to move our containers out of the port. The cheapest truck you can get to hire is N1 million. We have never experienced it this way before,” Nwankwo said.
Further capturing the loss of agents in better perspective, the National Vice President, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Kayode Farinto, revealed that an average of N300 million is lost weekly to illegal collections by NPA security officials, the police and members of the Presidential Task Team.
Farinto also lamented the absence of an electronic call-up system, saying that the manual call up system being used by the NPA is fuelling corruption.
“It is high time the NPA began the electronic call-up system. The manual call-up system is full of anomalies and it is encouraging corruption and it looks as if the government is not even ready to stop corruption,” he stated.
But with more troubles for freight forwarders outside the bad roads and the likely seizure of their cargoes by Nigeria Customs units on the highways such as the Federal Operations Units (FOU), StrikeForce, et al, importers and agents at the TCIP have now opted to strip their cargoes right inside the port complex.
Yet, this practice is not in sync with global practice in port operations. It has further compounded the woes there in TCIP, leading to its immediate suspension by the NPA. Before the stripping ban, it cost between N600, 000 to N700, 000 to strip a cargo, and on an average day, about 100 trucks are usually lined up for the exercise.
“The amount for stripping in the Tin Can Island port area is exorbitant but it is simply a factor determined by market forces. The demand for stripping in this area is so high and there is no space for such activity. Therefore, those with the facility hiked the prices but importers don’t care because it saves them from the possible dangers with the multiple Customs units on the highways,” an official at Tin Can Island Port said.
According to the source, stripping, until the NPA banned it, was the norm at TCIP due to the type of consignment received there. He further explained that while Apapa port deals more with cargoes for multinational companies and government project cargoes, TCIP handles cargoes owned by individuals. This feature is said to encourage stripping at the port.
In February, the House of Representatives had resolved to investigate the extortion of truck drivers in Apapa by security operatives.
The resolution was made after lawmakers identified extortion by security officials as being a major factor responsible for the traffic challenges as operatives delayed the movement of trucks drivers who refused to cooperate with them.
The House took the resolution following a motion titled “Urgent Need to Investigate the unwarranted Extortion of Truck Operators and other Port users by Law Enforcement Agents at Apapa Port,” moved by Hon. Olusola Fatoba from Ekiti State.
Moving the motion, Fatoba had said truck operators pay as high as N300,000 to gain access into the port. He said the House was worried that law enforcement agents that are supposed to maintain law and order at the port had formed a “cartel” in cahoots with port officials, extorting money from the transporters.
He said the House was also worried that as a result of the activities of law enforcement agents in Apapa “a truck may spend up to two months before gaining access into the terminal, which is causing a lot of hardships and a huge increase in the cost of doing business which may inevitably lead to unrest and breakdown of law and order by the frustrated and oppressed truck operators.”
He noted that although the “ugly trend” had been going on unabated for years, yet, it was not this bad in terms of the level of extortion. “When the naval officers were there in charge of the operation to ensure smooth movement, the extortion was usually between N60, 000 to N100, 000. But now that they have been removed, the extortion has become worse,” Fatoba said.
On April 20, the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), asked the Federal Government to mandate the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to take over traffic management on the port access roads, “so as to clear the chaos created by the task team”.
STOAN had maintained back then that the NPA “has a robust security department that had done a good job of managing the traffic on the port access roads in the past and it is the consensus of stakeholders that they should return to that role.” But sadly, the same outfit has become an albatross for truck drivers and port efficiency.
Some relief, however, came from the National Assembly last week. A lawmaker, Leke Abejide, moved a motion that the “House specifically asked that a greater part of two months revenue generated by the Apapa Port, Tin Can Island Port, Kirikiri Lighter Terminal and PTML be committed to the construction of all the access roads for optimal revenue for the country, while the Nigerian Ports Authority and relevant security agencies should halt extortion activities going on at the ports and the access roads.
Abejide expressed surprise that notwithstanding the challenges of the access roads, the Nigeria Customs Service in four commands within the port viz the Apapa, Tin Can lsIand, PTML, and Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, rake in an average of N100 billion in one month. He said if the port access roads were in tip-top condition, perhaps over N500 billion would have been generated.
“If two months of Nigeria Customs revenue from these commands be dedicated to facilitating these access roads and needed infrastructure, the revenue would be recovered in full in less than a month and this will in effect sharply increasing our revenue. Ultimately, this would help stem the frequency of loans from China and other sources, of which we cannot predict the future ramification of the debts for the country,” Abejide submitted.
But for now, the question remains: When will sanity return to the ports roads?
