The Council of Maritime Transport Union and Association (COMTUA) encouraged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to unbundle its E-call up System ( ETo), to help curb extortion in Nigeria’s ports.
This was made known by the outgoing President of the association, Mr Thompson Olaleye, on Thursday during the maiden edition of the 2021 Delegate Convention of COMTUA, in Lagos, themed “Resolving the Challenges of Cargoes and Haulage Movements in Nigeria for Effective Domestication of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and Promoting the Ease of Doing Business in the Continent.”
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, Olaleye said that the high cases of extortion should be a catalyst for the unbundling of the system.
He also remarked that from Mile 2 down to Tin-Can, there was no semblance of a central control system where anybody was checking truck documents or papers, citing illegal checkpoints mounted by some associations that had pulled out of the COMTUA and were extorting money from port users.
He opined that if the Eto system is unbundled, there will be competition. The traffic managers will perform more effectively. “Currently, the entire port area seems to be too big for just one company to handle,” he said.
“It was agreed that no member should collect money on the port access road due to the menace it causes but they refused.
“After fruitless efforts to make them see reason, they have left COMTUA and as I speak to you, their members are on the roads between Mile 2 and Tin-Can, collecting money from truckers,” he said
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