Agents, importers snub NPA order —continue containers stripping at Tin Can port

Importers and their agents have continued to defy the directive of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) banning containers stripping at the Ports.

The Port Manager of the Tincan Island Port Complex (TCIP), Abubakar Bello on Monday said that more than two hundred trucks were parked at the Tincan port access roads by clearing agents and importers who insisted  to enter into the bonded terminals along the Tincan port corridor to carry out stripping of containers.

Recall that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had last week banned stripping activities along the Tincan corridor, saying it is responsible for the traffic along the corridor.

Asked why the trucks still remain on the road after the authority had said it would ban the activities on the corridor and that normalcy would return to the road, he said that some agents insisted on gaining entrance into the terminals.

Bello added that stripping activities in the terminals are illegal because that is not what they were licensed to do.

Most agents prefer to open their consignments close to the port and take the contents away, leaving the container to be returned to the port early enough due to traffic on the roads.

But the Manager maintained that some of the terminals were licensed as car parks and some as container depots and not for stripping of containers.

Our correspondent who visited the area discovered that one part of the dual carriage way was totally blocked by trucks laden with containers while a narrow way was left on the other side of the road for tricycles and private cars.

The Port Manager however insisted that stakeholders must abide by the laws of the land and do the right thing