By Godwin Oritse

NIGERIAN Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO)  and other unions  made good their threat on the lingering furore over the mode of  payment of Wharf Landing Fees as they withdrew there trucks from operations at the ports, thus disrupting  activities at Lagos ports.

By this action, both the Lagos  state and Federal government lost millions of naira in revenue, while operators and port users are also  counting their loses.

An official of NARTO  who spoke on the condition of anonymity explained that it has become pertinent to carry out the action as the state’s revenue collectors refuse to sell tickets to them, while imposing strict conditions .

Customs Area Comptroller FCT Command Abuja Comptroller Usman Kankara Bello explaining some points to the visiting Pakistan Customs officials at the Customs Processing Center (CPC) to the vistors who were in Abuja to see the operations of the Customs ASYCUDA 3.0 “We have refused to lift products today because the state agents refused to sell tickets to the drivers and moving on the road with products will only impose undue liability on the truck drivers. This is what we can’t afford to bear”, he added

Events at the port showed that most of the trucks that usually move containers and other cargoes in and out of the port were no where to be found as the group has moved all trucks from the port.

It will be recalled that NARTO had earlier petitioned the government on the  conditions imposed on them  by the  state’s agent responsible for the collection of Wharf Landing Fee

Some of the conditions include customs information like the bill of laden, , weight, size and even content of vessels and others which they say are almost impossible to access.

It will also be recalled that (NARTO) and Association of Fish Suppliers’ of Nigeria (AFISUN) truck drivers, have threatened to resist attempts by the state’s revenue collecting agent to impose on them unrealistic demands, as well as the agent’s move to frustrate the state government’s revenue generation efforts through on line payment the Wharf Landing Fees.

Besides, the association urged the state government to wade into the matter in order to prevent a pending chaotic situation from occurring, considering how a long it took government and stakeholders to arrive at the present level of compliance, especially when the stakeholders have not defaulted in their funds remittance to the Lagos state government since the enactment of the Wharf Landing Fee law, and should not be frustrated by agents who may want to protect their selfish interest.

Speaking on behalf of the associations, NARTO’s Executive Secretary, Mr Emmanuel Gowon explained that the state’s collecting agent made unrealistic demands of them like the Nigerian Customs related information such as the name, contents, weight, size of every vessel that comes into the port and other information outside the agent’s jurisdiction and purview of the law before the sale of manual tickets.

He added that the agent’s preference for the reintroduction of a manual process is another source of concern for the associations, especially when they are already operating an automated system.

He however noted that as much as the Lagos state government may have appointed a collecting agent, it is not within the agent’s power to set the Nigerian customs criteria for stakeholders as it is not specified in the law of the Wharf Landing Fee.

The associations in the exercise of their rights have however appointed an agent to pay the wharf landing fee on their behalf fso as to maintain orderliness, transparency, accountability and to prevent chaos on Lagos roads, thereby fulfilling section 1.2 of the law.

Specifically, the associations explained that there has been speculations from government quarters about the  amounts remitted to the state government by the collecting agent since the adoption of the Electronic Identification System (EIS) provided by the associations’ agent . However, we hope to present facts on the matter and clarify such if the state government demands for one, he added.

According to Gowon “the associations have employed the services of a technical consultant to monitor activities and performance of its trucks using the Electronic Identification System (EIS) to aid this and ensure payment of the Wharf Landing fees payable on each truck for daily bulk remittance to the appointed revenue collector.