COMTUA dissolves Executives, inaugurates caretaker committee for effective delivery of service

The Committee of Maritime Truck Unions Association (COMTUA) at the weekend dissolved its Board of Trustees (BOT) and management team while a caretaker committee of six members has been put in place to oversee the affairs of the committee.

The change is coming on the heels of accusation that the impact of the former management team and BoT members  was not felt by members in the industry.

According to the members, the caretaker committee was inaugurated to put a new structure in place for the committee.

Recall that COMTUA was inaugurated to help in clearing gridlock on port access road.

Members of the Committee was drawn from six trucking associations in the port but the initiative has instead become a burden to members instead of a reprieve.

The Committee members include Mr. Aloga Ogbogo Executive Secreatry of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) as the chairman; Com. Adewale Adeyanju of MWUN as member, Isiaka Olalere of Road Transport Employers Association as member.

Others are Yakubu Kolawole of COTUA as a member, Adeola Adeyemi of RTEAN as a member.

Speaking with our correspondent after the meeting, President General of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Comrade Adewale Adeyanju said his group had intended to withdraw from the committee owing to the fact the committee was not living up to its billing.

According to him, MWUN joined the union at the peak of gridlock on the port road to help reduce the effect of the traffic on his members working in the port.

“There was a change in the sense that the BOT and the management team to put in place a good structure through a caretaker committee jointly appointed for six months to put a structure of COMTUA in place and the six members all agreed that we should continue to work together.

“I had wanted to withdraw but people said we should not because that purpose for which I joined them is for the welfare of my members working in the port owing to the traffic in the port.

“If trucks are not coming, how do you expect the dock workers to work? How do you expect agents to clear their containers? How do you expect shipping lines to bring in their containers?

“These things will lead to demurrage and that is the purpose of collaborating with those associations. Ordinarily, my job is in the port. I work ashore and in the vessel but because of the gridlock we experience that is why we said we should collaborate with them to see how we can reduce the gridlock.

“But we find out that some of the associations are using it to extort that is why we wanted to pull out but we have dissolved the former board and they have constituted a caretaker committee so that they can put up modus operandi that is going to help the associations to move forward.”

Confirming the development, Coordinator of the dissolved management team, Mr. Okafor said that management and BOT members were dissolved because of lapses discovered in their operations.

“The resolution is that COMTUA will continue to colaborate and in doing that, we also discovered many lapses both at BoT level and management level and going forward, the house has unanimously dissolved the two bodies and caretaker committee has been inaugurated with members drawn from each of the associations.

“The Committee is to come up with plans on how COMTUA can move forward and they were given three months to do that,” he submitted