The Save Humanity Advocacy Centre (SHAC) says it has uncovered alleged fraud and illegal operations at the Rivers Port purportedly under the watch of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
The Centre said that it had received numerous petitions against Ibeto Jetty and its illegal labour operations to the detriment of the country's revenue.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, the Centre's Executive Director of Media, Comrade Jacob Okpanachi, said unregistered dock workers are currently operating foreign vessels.
According to him, the activities have diverted the government revenues which run into billions of naira while shortchanging the legitimate registered dock workers of their wages.
"We want to publicly share with Nigerians our feelings, frustrations and pains about the happenings in Rivers Port, which the NPA seems to have turned a blind eye to," Okpanachi said.
"In the past year, we have received several petitions from concerned Nigerians on the alleged illegal labour operations at the Ibeto Jetty, which has been a conduit pipe for siphoning government revenue by a few individuals.
"The arrangement stems from the erroneous approval granted to Ibeto Jetty to operate as a port, as a result of the disingenuous advice of the former Port Manager, Mr. Adamu Michael, through the former Executive Director of Marine and Operations, Onari Brown.
"We need to know the rationale behind the decision to allow unregistered dock workers to operate foreign vessels at a private Jetty while denying the government its through-put/ berthing fees and also under declaration of tonnage.
"Within a year of such activities, the activities have diverted the government revenues which run into billions of naira and counting, while shortchanging the legitimate registered dock workers of their wages.
"While the CEO of Ibeto is already facing a humongous fraud case at the Lagos Federal High Court, we are receiving more allegations of these under-table arrangements to the detriment of the dock workers and the Nigerian government in these times of scarce resources under the watch of the NPA management.
"Shipping agents have been lamenting how they can no longer carry out their legitimate business, the reason being that they cannot charge rates agreeable to the CPIU rates published by the same NPA."
The Centre, therefore, urged the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to probe the activities of Ibeto Jetty and the Rivers Port to ensure a level playing field for all players according to the law.
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