By Uzor Odigbo
Dockworkers operating from Ports and Terminal Operators Limited (PTOL) in Port Harcourt port , have expressed dissatisfaction over the failure by the concessionaire to provide safety kits and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for workers.
PTOL operates berth one to berth four of the Port Harcourt port in Rivers State; it entered 15 years concession agreement with the federal government.
A short video message on Tuesday, revealed that 90 per cent of the dockworkers were spotted with bathroom silpas, while others were without safety and other protective kits.
Some of the dockworkers at PTOL terminal without safety kits while on duty. \
A large number of the workers had no masks on their faces with little or no provision of overall clothing.
Comrade Waite Harry, a trustee, dock workers branch, MWUN, while addressing dockers of PTOL terminal lampooned the terminal operator for failing to provide the kitted equipment for members in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The top officials from the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) who paid a working visit to inspect the level of compliance by the concessionaires in the eastern ports frowned at the poorly kitted workers at PTOL , even as they lamented that the situation calls for urgent intervention by the government agencies to sanction the operators of the facility.
Speaking at the ongoing sensitization programme put together by the union in out-station ports as part of efforts to keep the members abreast of safety measures in place for prevention of COVID–19 spread for maritime operations, Harry promised to send a video message to the President General of MWUN , Comrade Adewale Adeyanju over the ugly situation faced by workers in the eastern seaports in Nigeria.
Recall that management of the union had embarked on a three-week inspection to the Lagos seaports for on the spot assessment of workers, in a bid to ascertain safety compliance mechanism put in place by the concessionaires during the lockdown
