The umbrella body of truck owners operating in Nigeria seaports under the auspices of Joint Council of Seaport Truckers Operators (JCOSTO) is challenging the alleged extortion of its members by officials Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).
The group disclosed this in an interview with journalist in Lagos.
The group also said that the 2016 sticker permit on truck standardisation issued by NPA to every truck plying the ports at N10,000 each was illegal, saying the group is challenging the collection in the said suit, which will soon come up at a Federal High Court in Lagos.
The Chairman of JCOSTO, Alhaji Kayode Odunowo, said that receipted levies truckers were forced to pay by the government agencies at the seaports were so many that the haulage business had become nightmarish in the country.
Odunowo said, “Any moment from now we will be in court with the NPA over the issue of sticker permit and with FRSC over obnoxious levies and fines.”
According to him, the regulatory agencies have contributed negatively to trucking operations, stressing the need for the government to reduce the number of agencies on the roads as it seems most of them are there to line their pockets.
He added that apart from the Nigeria Airforce every other paramilitary agencies of government including the Nigerian Navy, Army, Police, etc have allegedly extorted transporters operating within the Nigerian seaports.
Besides, the Secretary General of JCOSTO, Chief Godwin Ikeji, had called on the government to create an enabling environment to enlighten both government agencies deployed on the highways and truck operators, saying there is little or training facility for drivers in Nigeria even as 99 per cent of drivers in the country train on the job.
He said that government treat the alleged issue of recklessness of truck drivers in isolation without considering the bad roads across the country, training and regulation/ standardisation of practise and the fatigue drivers suffer for driving above the accepted number of hours. In Europe you drive for a maximum of eight hours, but in Nigeria, a driver drives for 24 hours and for him to access the port from the North or East he stays on the road for about five days.
Ikeji however lamented that all stakeholders were not carried along in the ongoing service withdrawal from the ports by transporters and freight agents across the country.
He explained that JCOSTO is not against the strike, saying, “The council had been involved in the issue of the deplorable port access roads which prompted withdrawal of service sometimes last year and we spend more than N4 million to fill some of the bad spots on Apapa road that year.
“We are not part of the strike but we are interested in what brought about the strike. We have documents to show that we have written to the government concerning the bad condition of the ports access roads.”
Odunowo further appealed to the government to fix the bad roads, saying it will help to forestall incessant falling of trucks along the port roads as well as help to cushion constant breakdown of trucks.
He said, “We want government to repair the ports access roads, we have been calling on the government to try their best as our trucks with containers are falling down every day and that means loss of business for the truck owners and the containers too.
“If the roads are in good condition, it will be easy for the trucks to move the goods faster and do about three trips in a day, he stressed.