Freight forwarders decry extortion at sea ports

Africa Association of Professional Freight Forwarders and Logistics of Nigeria (APFFLON), has decried the payment of demurrage/rent at the Nigerian sea ports during the two days Eid-el-Kabir public holidays or any other holiday for that matter.President of APFFLON, Otunba Frank Ogunojemite condemned the collection at a press briefing he addressed at Ikeja recently, saying it is an abnormally.According to him, public holidays granted by the federal government should not be a punishment for importers, stakeholders and even the citizen of our great country.He wondered how we can explain the extortion of demurrage being charged by shipping companies especially on public holidays, adding that the charges trickle down to the final user.The issue of the rent or demurrage on public holidays is even more annoying when the importer realises that this is only peculiar to sea ports while nothing of such happens at airports, he said.Read Also:Apapa gridlock: FG committed to building new sea portsOsinbajoHe wondered why there should be discrepancies and discrimination in the same international trade within the same country, adding that it is an affront to the sovereignty of Nigeria as well as economic sabotage arising from economic flight.Ogunojemite condemned the issue of demurrage as a sheer exploitation and looks like second slavery for Nigerians, the most annoying is the issue of extortion through arbitrary charges especially on demurrage/rent.The Association frowned at the absence of port regulators to check the anomalies especially the issue of extortion by shipping companies and terminal operators, mostly foreigners, at the time the ports were concessioned in 2006.Ogunojemite also called on the Nigeria Shippers Council to rise up to the occasion and safe importers and freight forwarders from economic disaster over the unjust rent/demurrage from these shipping companies and terminal operators, otherwise this will jeopardise the federal government policy on Ease of doing business in Nigeria.In the same vein Nigeria government should beam its searchlight on the aviation and maritime industry with a view to check the rot in the system in order to maximise the benefits and standardize the industry with comity of nations.
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