Freight forwarders operating at a private terminal, the Port Terminal Multi-Services Limited (PTML), located at Tincan Island in Apapa, Lagos, are calling on the Federal Government of Nigeria, under the leadership of President Mohammadu Buhari, to sanction immediately the management of the company for promoting racist tendencies and policies considered inimical to the Nigerian economy.
This feeling was expressed by the port users at a recent stakeholders meeting between the angry freight forwarders, officials of the Nigeria Customs Service, the Port Police and officials of the embattled private company. The aggrieved Nigerians who defied the inclement and sunny weather chanted solidarity songs accused the subsidiary firm of Italian shipping giant, the Grimaldi Group, of deliberately engaging an Indian whose identity they gave as Mr. Newton who they alleged made racist remarks against Nigerians by equating them with ‘monkeys’.
The freight forwarders who participated in the event were drawn from various associations namely, the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and Association of Registered Freight Forwarders (AREFFN), among others, said as law abiding citizens, they would not want to take laws in their hands but want the Nigerian President to instill sanity by punishing the terminal operator.
According to the stakeholders, Newton was alleged to be in the habit of making the negative remarks against Africans each time the import document processing centre located within the terminal is over-crowded by freight forwarders who struggled to process their documents at the PTML terminal where Newton worked as manager. A typical example, for which the freight forwarders were convinced that the company’s actions were deliberate, according to them, was the recently introduced access cards to the terminals.
They told the gathering that the measure was deliberately introduced by Newton to allow easy access to Asians but ward-off local freight forwarders from the port. And besides the discriminatory policy of the Italian company, the port users accused the Grimaldi Group of extortionist tendencies as well because each practitioner was made to compulsorily pay the sum of N10, 000 to obtain the access card issued by the PTML manager. ‘‘Apart from our discovery that the card expires after six months, another annoying issue here is that after one has paid the amount to obtain the access card in order to enter their terminal and process documents, he also must pay the company both shipping and terminal charges on the cargo, that is in their terminal before the consignment is cleared. This is unacceptable’’, said an angry speaker.
Unlike other multi-national shipping and terminal operators, this company appears not to be known to have in a any form implemented corporate social responsibility in Nigeria. The port users also accused it of not being a good corporate citizen of the country by celebrating Nigeria’s independence anniversary through the display of banners since its inception. Also, many of the speakers at the event further accused the company of making Nigerians using their terminals to operate under harsh conditions as there is absence of a modern auditorium within the company’s premises where agents waiting to effect the release of their cargo converge.
On the day of the programme, few minutes before the event began; Mr. Newton was sighted by the angry port users alighting from a vehicle ostensibly to attend the programme. But seeing the hostility that greeted his presence at the gathering, he became jittered following indignant shouts of his name and followed by the demands for him to leave Nigeria rented the air. The more this happened, he appeared uncomfortable. And seeing that the crowed surged towards his direction, he quickly hopped back into the car and fled the scene.
Apart from allegedly using this Asian to ‘insult’ the sensitivity of Nigerians, the clearing agents accused further the Italian company of extorting money from them through arbitrary charges. In addition to that, they said Grimaldi has not been complying with the rules that specified billings by the operator. For instance they accused the company of not observing public holidays and Sundays as they include such days in their issuance of terminal charges to importers.
Responding to the myriads of allegations against his company, an European representative of the managing director of the Grimaldi Group, said the position of the company will not be reviewed as the policy was aimed to reduce the number of officials per company that access the terminals. His response to the allegations further annoyed the agents. The representative of the Grimaldi boss did not conclude his speech when the atmosphere became much tensed, as the agents became more hostile forcing the Italian to be sandwiched out of the scene by security forces led by the female Divisional Police Officer in-charge of RoRo Port at Tincan Island.
In order for the company to have its way on the Access Card Scheme, it was alleged that it bribed ANLCA leadership at PTML to support the arrangement.
Reaction sought by the maritime press from ANLCA Chairman, Mr. Oluwole Obey invitation to the press centre was ignored.
The Managing Director of the Group, Mr. Rosso, declined an invitation by the maritime press to comment on the very serious issues of racial discrimination and extortion of money against his firm. When the issues were put to him, he refused to pick calls made to his private line.
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