Seaport truck owners under the aegis of Joint Council of Seaport Truckers (JCOST) on Tuesday in Lagos threatened to sue the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) over alleged extortion.
But, in a swift reaction, the FRSC challenged JCOST to mention names and desist from making “sweeping allegations without proof”.
FRSC’s head of media relations and strategy, Bisi Kazeem in a chat with City BusinessNews (www.citybusinessnews.com) said: “They (JCOST) should be specific. That is why people have names on their tag. They should not use sweeping statement. They should mention names”.
Also reacting to the allegation, a source at NPA said: “This is not true. We want to see the evidence and not speculations”.
Addressing Journalists on Tuesday in Lagos, the group also alleged that the 2016 sticker permit on truck standardisation issued by NPA to every truck plying the ports at N10,000 each was illegal.
Speaking at a round table meeting organized by the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON), Chairman of JCOST, Alhaji Kayode Odunowo alleged that levies paid by truckers to government agencies has rendered most transporters jobless.
Odunowo said:”Any moment from now, we will be in court with the NPA over issue of sticker permit and obnoxious levies and fines by FRSC”
He disclosed that the matter is already with the Federal High Court, adding that the case would likely come up for mentioning soon.
Odunowo who was accompanied by the Secretary General of the council, Chief Godwin Ikeji called on the government to create an enabling environment to enlighten both government agencies deployed on the highways and truck operators.
Speaking on some of the challenges faced by transporters operating within the ports corridors, the truck owners noted that it takes five days for a truck to access the seaport in Lagos,pointing out that the roads linking the ports are in deplorable condition.
On the service withdrawal by transporters and freight agents across the country, the council lamented that the body was not carried along.
He, however, said the council is not against the strike, “council had been involved in the issue of the poor port access roads which prompted withdrawal of service sometimes last year and we spend more than N4 million to fill some of the bad spots on Apapa road that year.
