While shipping companies and terminal operators have been accused of gross extortion of freight forwarders and truckers to accept empty containers, fresh facts have emerged to show why agents and truckers pay as much as N40,000 to drop empty containers.
MMS Plus investigations revealed that desperate agents, truckers have been instigating some operatives at terminals and holding bays to collect bribes in order to drop their empty containers.
Speaking to our correspondent on this issue, the Terminal Coordinator for Bollore Terminals Kirikiri, Mr. Leonard Anyanwu explains; “Most terminal operators daily display the names of shipping lines whose empty containers would be allowed to enter the facility. So, you find cases where the driver must have spent several days on the road only to find that the gate has been closed to his shipping company when he arrives. He wouldn’t be allowed to enter, so he has to turn back and wait until the gate is open for the liner to come in but Nigerians wouldn’t like to waste time and they are willing to part with some money to convince the terminal operators to accept the container. I can’t confirm or deny such allegation, but in this society that we live in, such things can happen”.
