Corrupt truckers divert Call-Up tickets for FG’s duty-free grains
. . . Causing congestion at Lagos ports
Lagos ports are facing growing tensions following the arrival of the FG’s zero-duty grains, with reports of truckers fraudulently redirecting call-up tickets meant for grain evacuation to other cargoes.
Speaking to Vanguard on the development, Secretary of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners,AMATO, Mr. Sani Mohammed said that some truck owners have taken advantage of getting call up tickets to evacuate these but chose to divert these tickets to the evacuation of other shipments thereby causing congestion at the ports.
Mohammed also said that truckers with call up tickets to evacuate these categories of cargoes have abused the entire process adding the leadership of the Nigerian Ports Authority, need to intervene and stem the ugly trend currently causing chaos in the ports
He explained that the current situation in the port could rubbish the government’s intention of making food available for Nigerians at an affordable price.
Further explaining, corruption at the port is causing genuine truckers with valid call-up tickets to face delays for weeks before accessing the port to evacuate cargo.
He called on the government to demarcate between those with call up for evacuation and truckers with normal tickets for other cargoes.
He said:”We need to know who is going into ports with call up tickets to evacuate and those with tickets to load other cargoes so that the process will not be abused.
“As it is now, if you don’t have evacuation call up tickets, you cannot go to the ports and more people are going to o ports, the more people that are following the due process are delayed unnecessarily.
“The rice evacuation call up is being abused, NPA needs to look into it and take necessary action because direct evacuation is as old as the port itself but people are abusing it, the process is being abused.
“Once assigned call-up tickets for grain pickup, some truckers pass them to middlemen who resell them, allowing others to load different cargo from other terminals instead of grains.
“So there are so many truckers on that evacuation platform because of the abuse and corruption therein.
“We have told NPA to regulate the movement of these trucks that are meant for evacuation of these grains, create a pre-gate for trucks that are supposed to load so that we know who is coming for what.
“We do not have issues with that because we know they are coming to ease the suffering of Nigerians and creat reliefs for Nigerians.
But in a situation where you divert call up tickets you are supposed to use to load grains, somebody will use it to go and access another terminal and block the road for those that have valid tickets to load in the terminal.
“And because of these diversions, trucks at Lilypond Pre-gate cannot come into the ports as at when due. That is what we are telling NPA, look into this thing, the process is being abused calibrate it, separate the genuine users from those hijacking the process
“This is the reason for the congestion we are currently experiencing at ports
“It is better for the NPA to do the needful as the situation is getting worse by the day.”
