The tenants at the Containerized Complex, Tin Can Island Port held a peaceful protest to refute the plans of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to eject them from the complex.
The tenants who are mostly clearing agents urged the management of NPA to provide another complex for them to migrate to or rescind its decision to evict them from the complex.
Speaking to MMS Plus shortly after the protest, the Chairman of the Containerized Complex, Mr. Chukwuemeka Shedrack said, “If the NPA truly wants us to leave this place, then they have to make provision to relocate us. Some people have paid for this year and the notice says that we are to evacuate by September without any provision for refunds”
“We are equally stakeholders in this port and we want the MD of NPA, Habib Abdullahi to use his good office to intervene” Shedrack said.
Mr. Shedrack also revealed that a letter had been written to the MD of NPA over the issue but the agents were yet to get a reply.
In February Seaview properties Limited, a subsidiary of the NPA issued a letter demanding all occupants of the Containerized complex to vacate their offices in the facility on or before September 30, 2016.
Meanwhile one of the occupants of the Complex, Mr. Olorogun Ugwi lamented that the fight against the NPA ought to be one that all clearing agents associations and unions supported.
According to Ugwi, the union leaders were not protecting the individual agent that is why they have abandoned this fight.
“When this place was a satellite port, the plan was for this place to accommodate service providers like banks and agents. Today, it has become a proper complex what the NPA should be thinking of is to stabilize the service providers and not to destabilize them”, Ugwi said.
