The Nigerian Shippers’ Council on Tuesday shutdown operations of the Associated Port & Marine Development Company Limited for “non-compliance with council’s directive as port economic regulator.”
The Head of Public Relations, NSC, Mrs Rakiya Zubairu, made this known in a statement, adding that the council’s team was led by an Assistant Director in the Regulatory Services Department, Mr Adesina Sarumi.
Financial Street gathered that the cargo consolidator had been issued several notices to address infractions ranging from charging in forex, to non-compliance with approved nomenclature of charges such as Transport Adjustment charges, non-vessel operating carriers, outright disregard of terms of mediation reached at NSC, and unresolved complaints of over one and half years, among others.
Speaking shortly after the enforcement exercise, the Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement Division, Mrs Celine Ifeora, explained that the NSC sealed APMDC’s premises following its non-compliance with regulatory directives.
Ifeora disclosed that the NSC had invited the APMDC for meetings to resolve the issues, but it refused to honour the invitations.
She said the council was left with no choice but to carry out the enforcement by sealing APMDC’s premises. She added that the APMDC would remain closed until the issues are addressed.
“They don’t want to listen to any agency representing government. That is why we went out today to carry out the enforcement exercise on APMDC. Two warning letters had been forwarded, asking them not to introduce new tariffs and charges without the consent of government, but they refused to comply and rather introduced another new tariff,” Ifeora said.
Sarumi, who led the enforcement team, explained that the enforcement exercise was borne out of the need to address anomalies at the APMDC.
He lamented that some of the anomalies revolved around issues such as introduction of charges not approved by council, making payments in dollars for services rendered in Nigeria, among others.
Meanwhile, Bashir Ambi of the Complaints Unit of NSC, also confirmed that the unit received several complaints from the users of the services of APMDC.
He, however, noted that all efforts to speak with APMDC proved abortive until the shutdown.
