The Sun News Online

The concessionaires operating at the nation’s Sea Ports are jittery as the House of Representatives Committees on privatization and Commercialization threaten to reverse the concessioned deal.

The committee members led by Honourable Njidda Gella had visited Lagos Ports before jetting out to Eastern Ports to assess the level of development there.

They visited NPA headquarters where they were received by the Managing Director, Mallam Abdul-Salam-Mohammed. From there they moved to Apapa Bulk Terminal before going to ENL Consortium, APM Terminal, Joseph DAM Port, Port/Cargo handling Terminal and Five Stars Logistics.

At the authority’s headquarters, the Chairman simply said that, “We are here as part of our over sight functions, to see things for ourselves, to know how the ports are as well as to see if there is any appreciable improvement as relates the landlord/tenants relationship. If we discover any problem, we would reverse the concession process. We have discovered also that due process was not duly followed and we have received many petitions to proof that the entire concessions was wrong because there was no legal frame work to back it.”

“We will not fold our arms and allow the Commonwealth of every Nigerian to be mismanaged by very few people. It is our duty as lawmakers to protect the interest of every Nigerian. The present administration is in love with rule of law, so we will hold public hearing to enable every Nigerian see how their properties were shared,” they said.

Of all the terminals visited, Ports/Cargo handling seemed to have received a green light from the committee members, while ENL Consortium and Joseph Dam terminals are yet to satisfy laid down conditions in terms of structures and infrastructural development.

Earlier, in his remark, the Managing Director Nigerian Ports Authority Malam Abdul-Salam Mohammed who commended the committee members for visiting the ports also reminded them that concessioning of the ports does not mean outright sales of the port, adding that only some areas were given out to the private operators to manage for some period of time while NPA is still the owner of the ports.
He appealed to members of the committees to give pass mark where it is found in the course of their oversight function for it would not be good to throw a baby away with the bad water. He, however, disclosed that there would not be any meaningful concession unless a commercial regulator is appointed to monitor the Terminal Operators and Shipping Companies because NPA’s functions were not structured to perform the roles of commercial regulators.

NPA boss also debunked allegation that Nigerian bound-cargos are being diverted to other neighbouring countries as a result of high charges and noted that it could be as a result of customs tariff.