BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
NON-REFUND of over N100 million Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF, deducted from Dockworkers by Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, eight years after the stoppage of the scheme is causing restiveness in the Ports.

Already organised labour in the sector has issued a 14-day ultimatum to the management of NIMASA to pay or the entire ports will be shut, even as the concerned Dockworkers especially in Warri, Delta State and Onne Port, in Calabar, Cross Rivers State are threatening fire and brimstone over the funds.

Vanguard gathered that the deductions date back to the time of National Provident Fund, NPF, through the National Dock Labour Board.

It was gathered that when the National Dock Labour Board transformed into JOMALIC and NPF metamorphosed into NSITF, the deductions continued.

According to investigations, the organised labour later discovered that the deducted money was not been remitted and wrote to the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, to force remittance from the contractors who were engaging the Dockworkers then, but NPA refused.

However, under Chief Ojo Maduekwe as Minister of Transport, at a meeting with the labour leaders in 2000, the labour leaders reported the matter to the Minister who expressed shock and immediately directed NPA to only deduct the money from the contractors, but also ensure that the services of the contractors were discontinued. Also, the Minister was said to have instructed NPA to keep the money.

At the birth of NIMASA, Vanguard gathered that the NPA transferred part of the money to NIMASA and during the port consessioning, the aged dockworkers were paid their contributions as part of their disengagement benefits.

But because of the NSITF rules that contributors would only assess the money from 65 years of age or after 35 years in service, many serving Dockworkers who contributed into the fund between 2000 and 2003 were not able to assess the money and are yet to be paid.

According to investigations, due to continued protest from the leaders of Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, under the leadership of Comrade Anthony Nted Emmanuel, a committee was set to set up to determine among others, the mode of payment to the affected Dockworkers.

According to sources at NIMASA, the committee broke down the beneficiaries into two batches and under batch one, most of contributors in Lagos and Port Harcourt Ports have been paid leaving only a handful, but in Warri and Onne, nobody has been paid.

In recent times, the aggrieved Dockworkers in Warri and Onne have become very restive and were said to have accused leaders of the union of having connived with the management of NIMASA to embezzle the money. It was gathered that they went on air in a Television Programme called “Na so we see am” in Delta State to level accusation of embezzlement of the money against the leadership of the union.

When Vanguard called at the National Secretariat of the MWUN in Lagos, it was gathered that the President-General and other leaders of the union were out of the country for a training programme.

But an official of the union told Vanguard on condition of anonymity that the leadership of the union was no longer taking the matter lightly with NIMASA and had indeed since August 25, 2011 issued a 14-day ultimatum to the management of NIMASA to either pay the money or face unprecedented industrial unrest. According to the official, the leaders of the union who do not want their names to be rubbished for what they know nothing about, have vowed to shut down the entire ports should the management of NIMASA fail to pay.

Efforts to reach the management of NIMASA on the development yielded no result. Several calls to two senior officials of the agency and test message to their Mobile phones were neither answered nor replied to a week before this report.