New Telegraph

NPA, tenants draw battleline over eviction

Five years after, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has decided to evict its tenants, but the occupants have vowed to resist the plans, BAYO AKOMOLAFE reports

Despite the implementation of International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code, importers and port users have lost huge amount of money over failure by government to destroy some illegal shanties around the ports from where attacks are launched on vessels, truckers and other port users at night. Worried by the menace, especially around the port access roads, neighbouring Ogogoro and Sapokoji villages, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) was forced to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lagos State government to clean-up the port adjudged to be the dirtiest in the world. Last week, the taskforce visited the Tin Can Island first and second gates and destroyed all existing shanties and criminals’ hideouts. However, the clean up exercise did not extend to neighbouring Ogogoro and Sapokoji that are believed to be the haven of criminals. Even at the Tincan Port, plans to move the clean-up exercise into the port environment is being resisted by some occupants around Port and Terminal Multi-services Limited (PTML) following a 72-hour eviction notice issued by NPA to the occupants of the Tin Can Island Container Complex, a popular office space around port.

Issue

There have been disagreements among the occupants of the complex and NPA in the last five years. For instance, in 2016, under the former Managing Director of the Authority, Habib Abdullahi, freight forwarders were first issued a quit notice by Seaview Properties Limited, a subsidiary of NPA, but the occupants dragged NPA to court and the matter has been dragging in court ever since.

Short notice

Chairman of the Container Complex, Chief Shedrack Chukuemeka, said that NPA’s Tin Can Port Manager, Yunusa Muhammed, issued a 72-hour notice for the occupants to vacate the complex despite the court case. According to him, NPA and some taskforce members had visited the port to issue the eviction notice. Notwithstanding the notice, Shedrack said that the freight forwarders had resolved to resist any attempt to evict them force-fully from their office space, saying that NPA and the task force must be ready to kill 1,000 freight forwarders after the expiration of the 72 hours. He said that NPA should allow the courts to decide the matter, noting that the place does not belong to the occupants. He added that the owner must take it back in a polite and lawful manner.

Allegation

The chairman alleged that the Tin Can port manager was part of a cabal that had collected bribe from PTML in order to concession the space to them. According to him, “the matter is still pending in court, but NPA sent their delegation with the police to tell me that I should ask my people to park out in the next 72 hours. “I had to call the Seaview Properties manager, they are the subsidiary of NPA. I also called their lawyer and they all said they are not aware of it. “When we went to see the port manager, he said it was the decision of the Federal Government to sanitise the port and that a task force has been constituted, and that we have not been paying for the past four years. “If NPA decides to bring the task force, we would stand there to resist them and the world would hear.We have equally told the police DPO to be ready and come with a lot of arms and ammunition because they would kill more than 1,000 people here that day. “They should come and kill all of us, we are standing there waiting, we are not moving an inch until the court decides.” He also stressed that the court case was supposed to come up in June 2021, but because the court was on strike, the case did not hold, saying that a new date was being expected for hearing.

Directive

However, the port manager explained that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, had given an express directive for the Tin Can Port to be cleaned up, saying that the Federal Government was worried that the Tin Can Island Port had maintained a reputation of being the dirtiest and most porous port in the world and that effort was now being made to correct that impression. Mohammed said: “It is the Federal Government’s directive that the port should be clean and that we should standardise the port. “Tin Can Island Port has been termed to be the worst port in the whole world. So, the minister has directed that we should clean up all the things that made us the worst port in the world.” The port manager explained that the minister had directed NPA management to take all efforts to clean up the port and ensure that the port meet up the standard because Cote d’Ivore was taking over as the best port in the world. He said: “If you go to ports in Ghana, you cannot find all the shanties you are seeing here in our port there, even at Togo Port, you cannot find them and we are the richest country, so, why should we continue to be dirty and harbour criminals? “The NPA management gave these people quit notice over six years ago, the common law says that the landlord has to give the tenant six months maximum to move out, but the NPA has given them six years to leave. “In Nigeria, we are losing our values; vessels are abandoning our ports and we are competing with Ivory Coast, if we don’t fix our ports, we would lose.”

Last line

There is need by government to sanitise the port environment in order to free it from crime and pave the way for smooth trade facilitation.

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