The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Terminal operators

  • Council seeks N150b from terminal operators over ‘illegal’ collections

    Can an appeal automatically stop a litigant from enjoying the fruit of litigation?

    This is the puzzle the Court of Appeal is expected to unravel as the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC) and terminal operators squabble over the execution of a judgment ordering the operators to stop ‘illegal’ revenue collection at sea ports.

    Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos last December 17, ordered the operators to stop the collections, which NSC contends is illegal, from importers and clearing agents.

    The operators appealed the judgment and asked the high court to suspend its execution, pending the determination of their appeal.

    But NSC returned to Justice Buba, praying him to compel the operators to pay N150 billion for allegedly disobeying his order.

    In a statement, Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) lawyer Mr  Femi Atoyebi (SAN), accused NSC of making frantic efforts to ride rough shod over the judicial process.

    Atoyebi accused NSC of adopting illegal and unacceptable method because the case is subject of an appeal, adding that STOAN also has an application for stay before Justice Buba.

    The statement reads: “The law in Nigeria is that where, as here, there is an appeal against a court decision and a motion for stay of execution/injunction is filed, none of the parties must do anything to frustrate the hearing of the appeal until the application has been determined.

    “It is also trite that the court from which an appeal lies and the court to which an appeal lies have a duty to preserve the ‘res’ (subject-matter) so that the appeal, if successful, is not rendered nugatory. We consider that the NSC lawyers should have advised them appropriately of the correct position of the law and if they did, it would appear that NSC are refusing to follow the advice. We hasten to add that the NSC publication and any further step that may be taken by them in a bid to frustrate the pending appeal and foist on the Court of Appeal a situation of complete helplessness would be highly contemptuous of the court and we would not hesitate to apply the full weight of the law on such persons as may have authorised the publication.”

    But NSC’s lawyer Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) disagrees, saying: “The mere fact that there is a pending application for stay and an appeal do not remove the effect of the judgment we got.

    “Our position is supported by a Supreme Court decision that it will be unfair to allow a losing defendant “to continue cutting down and selling economic trees on the land” adjudged by the trial court not to belong to them simply because of a pending application for stay of execution and an appeal.

    “What the appellants who have been found not to be the owners of the land in dispute want of this court, in effect, is for the court to lend its authority to the appellants, for them to continue devastating the land in dispute by being allowed to continue cutting down and selling the economic trees on the land while the owner of the land – the respondent – sits back and watches, helplessly, the fruits of his judgment being denied him. That will be justice inverted. I will not be a party to such an inversion.

    “This Supreme Court decision is apt to our case. Applying the decision, it is clear that the terminal operators cannot continue to impose and collect illegal charges on the pretext that they have filed a pending application for stay or appeal.”

     

  • How shipping companies, terminal operators milk Nigerians

    Shipping companies and terminal operators are making several billions of naira yearly at the nation’s seaports from storage charges they have unilaterally imposed on importers, The Nation has learnt.

    The charges are in respect of rates importers are forced to pay on weekends and public holidays that the shipping companies are not opened for business.

    Speaking at the official opening of their secretariat at Tin-Can Island port, Lagos, the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents’ (ANLCA) Chairman,  Prince Kayode Oyinlola, berated the shipping companies and terminal operators for collecting excessive money for services not rendered.

    He  bemoaned the amount deducted from their container deposits while their trucks are waiting to discharge empty containers because of lack of holding bays in most of the terminals.

    Police, quarantine and other agencies, he alleged, impede the government’s trade facilitation programme by blocking the release of containers through frivolous excuses.

    Oyinlola said: “These issues are not exhaustive, but are enough to catalyse us into action to recue our members from unwarranted hardship.”

    e high tariffs charged at our home ports.

    The importers also alleged that it takes terminal operators more than three days to position their containers after they have requested for them.

    The spokesman for the importers, Johnson Eromosele, alleged that the terminal operators have also consistently asked them to pay storage charge even when the operators fail to position their containers for examination.

    The amount they pay, Johnson said,  most of the time, is  inflated, adding that most of the terminals at the Lagos ports,  do not have suitable examination bays,  where all containers confirmed for examination by the Nigeria Customs Service can be positioned.

    The importers are furious that the terminal operators cause undue      delays in the clearing process, resulting in increased port charges which over time erode their gains and customer confidence.

    Findings also revealed that when a consignee submits all the necessary documents to some of the terminal operators and makes request for an invoice to enable the clearing process, the invoices are sometimes delayed till the following day before they were issued.

    This delay, the importers claim, gives rooms to the shipping companies and terminal operators to milk Nigerians.

    “When the importer, clearing agent, or the truck driver presents a Terminal Delivery Order (TDO) to the terminal operators, most of the time, they find it difficult to locate the container, thus causing undue delay and still , they go ahead to demand for storage fees,” Johnson said.

    Investigation however  revealed that the terminal operators have unilaterally increased the storage charge in violation of the last approval given by the Federal Government through the Minister of Transport on May1, 2009.

    Sources at the Federal Ministry of Transport said in the said approval, “it was emphasised that the rates are the absolute maximum any terminal operator is allowed to charge, and under no circumstances shall any of the operators charge an importer any amount higher than the rates approved by the government. But the terminal operators have since embarked on progressive increases in the storage charge thus violating the government’s order.”

    The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, the official said, has directed all shipping companies and shipping agents to ensure the refund of container deposit fees within 10 days after the empty container has been returned to the terminal.

    “Failure will attract interest on the outstanding amount of deposit at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) prevailing commercial rate until refund is made,”  he said.

    Findings revealed that more than 35 per cent of container deposits collected for shipping companies by terminal operators are not refunded despite the efforts by importers and their agents  to return empty containers on time and in good condition.

    To resolve the issues, the Federal Government, a source said, has ordered joint examination of the condition of containers before the truck drivers will move them out of the port and when it is returned, so that nobody will use it to exploit the importers.

    The terminal operators and the shipping companies, it was learnt, also feed fat on the importers because of endemic traffic situation in Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports.

    The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, it was learnt, has pegged fees paid for container cleaning and maintenance to N1, 500, while the free period prior to payment of demurrage has been increased from five days to 10, in line with sub-regional and international practices.

    Before the recent move by the government, Nigerian port had five demurrage-free days, Ghana, eight days, while Benin Republic, has 10 days.

    The Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), it was learnt, is not happy with the reversal in the storage charges and it has gone court to seek redress.

  • Terminal operators seek subsidy on freight for landlocked nations

    The Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) has urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to subsidise the landlocked countries’ transactions at the seaports.

    The group said handling transshipment cargo for Nigeria’s landlocked neighbouring countries is not commercially viable.

    STOTAN said the conditions under which NPA handled transshipment cargoes in the pre-port concession era were not favourable to the ports.

    It said terminal operators would handle transshipment cargoes of the landlocked nations only if NPA was willing to pay the shortfall charged by shippers of the affected countries.

    Its Chairman, Princess Vicky Haastrup, who spoke in Lagos, said that unless NPA was willing to subsidise the landlocked countrits’ transactions, her members would not have anything to do with their cargoes.

    She said the rates which NPA charged the landlocked countries, including Chad and Niger Republic for the handling of the consignments, were too low .

    “NPA as a government agency, was probably playing the normal “big brother” role to the neighbouring African countries, but we are private people, we cannot do that ‘Father Christmas’ for anybody. If the land-locked countries are ready to pay the normal rates in cargo handling, we will be very willing to do business with them,” she said.

    The STOAN chairman said the concessionaires at the seaports had achieved a lot in the past eight years of port concession.

    “We are proud of our achievements at the ports these past eight years. We have done a lot. We have improved operation and modernised the ports. Before now, equipment and cargo availability were a huge challenge at the ports. Vessels had to queue endlessly to secure berthing space. The ports were run down, but the story is different. We have port terminals that Nigerians measures to port terminals in developed countries and that Nigerians can be proud of,” she said.

    Haastrup also said the port environment is congested due to the activities of non-core port operations including tank farms which she said are “too close to the ports.”