Truck owners operating in the Nigerian seaports (maritime transporters) at the weekend said that they will withdraw their services from the Lagos ports on Monday, adding that they will ensure that no single consignment leaves the seaport from Monday morning. They warned the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to withdraw the N10, 000-levy it imposed on the truck operators at the port industry.
Speaking with journalists during the warning protest at the weekend, Chairman of the Coalition of Port Dry Cargo Transport Operators, Alhaji Abdullahi Inuwa described the N10, 000 levy for electronic stickers as a plan to extort money from the transporters.
He said that the truck owners group, comprising of Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria Drivers Unit, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Truck Terminal Users Association (TTUA); support the move to ensure that the trucks meet the required minimum standard but are completely against the levy imposed on them by the management of NPA, saying it is totally unacceptable.
He said in NPA’s desperation to extort the N10, 000 from the transporters, the organisation has given the levy three different names at different times.
“At first it was called electronic gate sticker, then it was called sanitization levy and later satisfaction levies, just to justify the levy,” he said. He said that last time because of extortion; their members went on rampage and shut the port access roads, “but this time they are doing everything peacefully.” According to him, the transporters have paid N5, 000 for the sanitization and satisfaction levies in the past six months, “only for them to turn back to asked us to pay N10, 000.”
