ACTIVITIES at the Calabar Port in Cross River State were on Tuesday and yesterday paralysed as workers of the port protested over their eviction from the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) staff quarters known as Harbour Village, Ekorinim.Yesterday all the entrances to the port remained locked thus barring workers of Eco Marine, Dangote, NPA and others from entering their offices for normal work.The aggrieved workers who were last Thursday evicted from the NPA quarters following a 1985 High Court judgment that confirmed that the disputed parcel of land belongs to a veteran 90-year-old medical doctor, Dr. Sama Ekpo Sama, locked all the entrances to the port over the alleged insensitivity of the management of NPA and the Minister of Transport.Five days after their eviction, most of the affected workers sleep in the offices with their families while some have parked into their uncompleted private buildings without windows and doors.Some of the affected workers complained that apart from their property thrown out without any notice for them to make alternative arrangements, the people that came to enforce the eviction allegedly looted some of their personal belongings, including huge sums of money.Chairman of Senior Staff Association of the port, Mr. George Umoh, said although there is a lot of pressure for them to open the gates, 'the port will remain locked until the authorities of the NPA and the Minister of Transport look into their plight and provide them with alternative accommodation.'Umoh said that the protest and locking of the NPA premises became necessary because the workers had no place to lay their heads with their families as they were evicted without any notice.He said that apart from the fact that those who enforced their eviction broke into their quarters and threw their property away, they collected huge sums of money from them and that since the incidence took place, attempts to talk to the management of NPA or government had not produced any positive result.He also said that it was not possible to get and pay for a new house in Calabar in time period and that some landlords had cashed in on their plight to exploit members. He added that their children have had to drop from school as the money allegedly stolen from them was for their children's school fees.Umoh appealed for protection of the workers by the authorities of NPA and the Federal Government as their eviction was causing them serious trauma.He said that he was not against whoever was the rightful owner of the property taking possession of it, but that, 'if it is true that the property belongs to Dr. Sama and that if the court had delivered judgment without the knowledge of NPA, Dr. Sama should have given us two weeks' notice.'Evicting us with thugs is barbaric. The management has to do something. We are not happy that we are keeping people going to do business at the port outside, but the situation we found ourselves requires what we are doing.'In a solidarity rally, Chairman of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, NPA branch, Mr. Ajayi Bamidele, said that the presence of his union was to give solidarity to the NPA workers over what they were passing through as they had become homeless.'We are not saying that the Harbour Village should not be given to whosoever owns it, what we are saying is that they should have given us notice and should not have used thugs to drive us out and loot our property including money.'But counsel to Sama, Mr. Mba Ukweni, alleged that several notices were given to NPA to vacate the Harbor Village but to no avail until last week, insisting that it was not true that they were not informed.
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