E-call up system: Stakeholders accuse terminal operators of sabotage

Segun Oladipupo

Critical stakeholders who are into export, import and freight forwarding businesses have called on the federal government to hold AP Moller Terminal (APMT) and  Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) responsible if the electronic call up system employed to rid Apapa and environ of traffic, fails.

Recall that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) last month initiated the electronic call up system to ease traffic along the Western ports.

But  the initiative seems to have lost its efficacy after the initial two weeks of success.

But a group, Advocacy for Maritime Development Association (AMDA) has said that the hitches experienced by the system are artificial problems created by some operators and security operatives.

The President of the group, Mr. Segun Alabi, while lauding the NPA for coming up with the initiative, decried the activities of APMT which he said is the major factor hindering the success of the system.

He therefore called on the government to hold the concessionaires responsible for inability to achieve the purpose for which the platform was created.

He added that agencies in charge of control of traffic within the corridor have also begun extortion of truckers, hence granting passage to trucks without authority to access the ports.

Alabi said, “December was very heavy in terms of inflow and it scaled over to January and February and by the second week of last month, they started E-Call up and that was a very wonderful step. I personally want to commend NPA for that initiative

“Personally, I thought it was going to be one of those we do thing but they kept faith with their promise and E-Call up started.

“The first two weeks was wonderful, for the first time, Apapa traffic disappeared in the first two weeks of the E-call up system and you could gate-in within a day which had never happened before in the past.

“But for today, let me tell you because we need to say this, there are individuals that are trying to frustrate the process”

“Number one is APMT and I don’t know for what reason but I will tell you that APMT is one of those government should hold responsible  if E-Call up system fails.”

“Let me give you an example.

APMT told us in a stakeholders meeting that they will be able to do 100 trucks per hour and we say they should not do 100 bit 69 and they agreed.

“We found out that APMT will not gate-in for a whole day and they will blame it on backlog trying to load on vessel using their equipment to load onboard a vessel . Who pays for the time wasted?

“Secondly, those traffic wardens on the road have started again.

“The fact that export goods are halted from coming into the port is also APMT problem,” he said