Maritime transporters, an affiliate of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) Eastern Zone, have rejected the E-call up truck system at Onne and other ports in the Eastern Zone.
Rising from an emergency meeting on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the group threatened a showdown with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other maritime authorities if they refuse to adhere to their call for its review.
Over 500 of their members who attended the meeting insisted that the E-call up system failed at the Lagos ports of Apapa and Tin Can, wondering why such should be experimented in the Eastern ports.
What the Eastern Ports need, they asserted, are port infrastructural developments, such as good port access roads, dredging of water channels to accommodate more vessels, and increased cargo throughput and vessel turnaround time.
The association lamented that freight differential and high insurance at the Eastern Ports have already dealt a big blow on the operators.
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Some of the aggrieved truck owners and drivers were seen carrying placards with inscriptions such as, “there is no congestion at Onne ports”,” We don’t want E-call up system at Onne”,” E-call up is to kill the Eastern Ports” and “E-call up didn’t work in Lagos.”
They insisted that those canvassing for the E-call up system are the ones who have positioned themselves to corruptly benefit as they did in Lagos, thereby causing unemployment and hardship for people who are already suffering.
The people described the E-call up system as a “hydra-headed monster” that would at the long run stifle the Onne oil and gas business and also cripple the Eastern Ports which they said was underutilized.
Reacting to an endorsement of the system by a group, the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), the Haulage District Chairman, Maritime Workers Union Eastern Zone, Comrade Adolphus Ugwu, denied the existence of such an association at Onne and the entire Eastern Ports.
