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By Kenneth Jukpor
Despite the well publicized extortion strategies of security operatives along Lagos port corridors, the menace persists with shippers lamenting that over N200,000 is extorted from their truckers on Tin Can Island Port (TCIP) access road.
The ongoing road construction on the axis has made vehicular movement more challenging while security operatives maximize the opportunity to extort truckers.
Speaking with our correspondent last week, a shipper, Alhaji Hussien Musa revealed that the average sum expended by truckers on security operatives and touts is N200,000 for the area between Mile 2 and the TCIP gate.
His words: “Beside this enormous fee, security officers and touts would extort monies from the truck driver. From Mile 2 to Tin Can Island Port (TCIP) the truck must have spent over N200,000 at different locations on a 40ft container. This money comes from the importer and the freight agent, but the final consumer pays because the cost would reflect on goods and services”
He also lamented that the high cost of trucking in the nation has become unbearable, noting that it costs over N1million to move a 40ft container by truck from Lagos to Kano State.
“I have a container at Tin Can that I am going to send to Kano. Truckers are charging N1million. How much profit would the shipper possibly make on the container if it costs N1million to transport it to Kano. It is really terrible,” he said.
Musa also queried terminals and shipping companies for depriving port users of the respite provided by the government via waivers to cushion the economic pangs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is also unfortunate that the waivers directed by the federal government with respect to terminal and shipping companies were not obeyed. The terminals and shipping companies collected charges for the lockdown period and they have refused to reimburse shippers,” he added.
In a related development, the Chairman of Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Chief Remi Ogungbemi has implored the federal government to remove the police officers and other security agencies on the port access roads.
Ogungbemi who revealed this in a press release, lamented that the presence of the armed officers has become inimical to haphazard truck movement on the port access roads.
He also complained that the officers have been assaulting truck drivers and extorting them rather than providing order which they were drafted to the port access roads to provide.
