The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) on Tuesday called on the Federal Government to investigate the activities of unregistered dockworkers who currently operate foreign vessels at Ibeto Jetty and Rivers Port, respectively.
Speaking at a press conference held in Abuja, the Centre’s Executive Director of Media, Comrade Jacob Okpanachi, underscored the need to investigate the allegations of fraudulent and illegal operations at the Rivers Port being supervised by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
He explained that the Center had received numerous petitions against Ibeto Jetty and its illegal labor operations to the detriment of the country’s revenue.
According to him, these activities have diverted government revenues amounting to billions of naira while shortchanging legitimate registered dockworkers of their wages.
“We want to publicly share with Nigerians our feelings, frustrations, and pains about the happenings in Rivers Port, which the NPA seems to have turned a blind eye to.
“In the past year, we have received several petitions from concerned Nigerians regarding the alleged illegal labor operations at Ibeto Jetty, which has been a conduit pipe for siphoning government revenue by a few individuals.
“The arrangement stems from the erroneous approval granted to Ibeto Jetty to operate as a port, as a result of the disingenuous advice of the former Port Manager, Mr. Adamu Michael, through the former Executive Director of Marine and Operations, Onari Brown.
“We need to know the rationale behind the decision to allow unregistered dockworkers to operate foreign vessels at a private Jetty while denying the government its throughput/berthing fees and also under-declaration of tonnage.
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“Within a year of such activities, government revenues have been diverted, amounting to billions of naira and counting, while legitimate registered dockworkers are being shortchanged of their wages.
“While the CEO of Ibeto is already facing a humongous fraud case at the Lagos Federal High Court, we are receiving more allegations of these under-table arrangements to the detriment of the dockworkers and the Nigerian government in these times of scarce resources under the watch of the NPA management.
“Shipping agents have been lamenting how they can no longer carry out their legitimate business, the reason being that they cannot charge rates agreeable to the CPIU rates published by the same NPA.”
To this end, he called on the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Chief Adegboyega Oyetola, to probe the activities of Ibeto Jetty and the Rivers Port to ensure a level playing field for all players according to the law.