The Council of Maritime Truck Unions and Associations has blamed the failed Electronic Call-Up system, popularly known as Eto, for the 54 per cent increase in barge fee by barge operators.
The recently introduced eCall-up system, it would be recalled, had collapsed due to alleged hijack by cabals that did not want the system to thrive, in order to make money.
The President of COMTUA, Thompson Olaleye, lamented the return of long queues along the corridors, following the inability of the Nigerian Ports Authority to sustain the eCall-up system.
He said the development had led to traffic gridlock inward the seaports in the last two months.
Olaleye also claimed that bargers were smiling to the banks over the inefficiency of Truck Transit Park operators.
The association boss explained that the cost of moving cargoes from the seaports to Mile 2, via the waterways, had increased by 54 per cent, causing barge charges to rise from N220,000 to N340,000 in the last two months.
His words, “Before now, those who were moving cargoes through barges were paying N220,000, until when they saw the situation of the road. As I am talking to you today, barge (charge) is N340,000.
“They noticed that the road is zero, so you don’t have a choice if you want to move your consignment early; you have to come to them. It has given them the monopoly because they know that you cannot get it done on the road, you have to come back to them.”
Olaleye, however, lamented that it is the common masses that suffer, adding, “Even if they move containers for N1m, it is the populace that suffers it in the long run; because whatever you buy, you put it on the prices.”
He appealed to the government to intervene to reduce the suffering on citizens.
