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Concerns as unfit trucks operate in defiance to NPA’s safety standards

By Adaku Onyenucheya
29 March 2023   |   3:14 am
Despite the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’s directive on strict enforcement of the Minimum Safety Standard (MSS), containers considered unfit have continued to ply the roads and access the ports without being checked or penalised.

Container truck with worn out tyre at Ladipo market, Lagos… PHOTO: ADAKU ONYENUCHEYA

Truckers say agency only concerned about revenue generation

Despite the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’s directive on strict enforcement of the Minimum Safety Standard (MSS), containers considered unfit have continued to ply the roads and access the ports without being checked or penalised.

The Guardian found that container trucks do not meet the MSS requirement and are moving freely, which has led to containers continued fall on the highway.

It was gathered that from Lagos to Ore, Ondo State, about four containers fell off the trucks conveying them on the highway. Recall that the Managing Director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, had last month, assured that the authority, in partnership with the Lagos State government and the Federal Road Service Corps (FRSC), will fully enforce the safety standards.

These agencies are expected to subject every truck to physical inspection as trucks that successfully pass the inspection test are given an MSS sticker, which is renewable every year at N10,000.

FRSC is expected to monitor, certify, register and enforce compliance with regulations governing the safety operations of articulated vehicles, while NPA, through the Trucks Transit Park (TTP), operators of the electronic call-up system, are to ensure trucks entering the ports have the sticker.

The Vehicle Inspection Service of Lagos State is in charge of the inspection and documentation of the trucks. Bello-Koko further stated that the agencies would impose stiffer penalties on truck drivers and owners to forestall container accidents, truck breakdowns on the highway and serve as deterrence to those who operate in breach.

NPA said it would also convene a broad stakeholder engagement with truck owners, terminal operators and off-dock workers at various locations to streamline the activities of these trucks and reiterate zero tolerance for violations of the minimum safety standards.

Barely two months after, the Council of Maritime Truck Unions and Associations (COMTUA) has claimed that NPA has remained mum on several issues raised by the union concerning the MSS sticker and other associated issues.

According to the union, the MSS policy has only focused on revenue generation against the claim of safety.The National President, COMTUA, Adeyinka Aroyewun, said the union observed that trucks were never inspected before the MSS sticker was issued, as truck owners have been forced to pay for services not rendered.

He said there has been continuous patronage of the ports and terminal by trucks that are not road worthy but have the Minimum Safety Standard sticker.

According to him, the union had reported, through a letter, and has proven to officers of the safety department in a meeting, that vehicles without requisite documents possess the stickers and conduct business in and around the ports.

He said the several accidents happening on the roads, which often involve container carrier trucks, have further confirmed the union’s claims against the policy.

The union, in a letter recently addressed to the Managing Director of NPA, said: “We have sought an audience with NPA through many letters on this issue and other related matters but you have never obliged us. We wish to use this medium to request an audience to discuss this issue, as we strongly believe we can address and resolve some of our concerns together. We do not wish to return to court on this matter

“We raised objections against the regime at the conception stage of the policy, which led to a suit instituted against the regime and the subsequent injunction imposed by the court on the implementation and enforcement of the policy in suit no: FHC/L/CS/766/2017.”

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