Shippers’ council seals APMDC over arbitrary charges

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), the port economic regulator, on Tuesday shutdown the operations of the Associated Port & Marine Development Company (APMDC) Ltd., a shipping company in Lagos.

The Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement Division, Mrs Celine Ifeora, disclosed this in a statement in Lagos.

The statement was signed by Mrs Rakiya Zubairu, Head, Public Relations, NSC.

According to Ifeora, the cargo-consolidator was issued several notices to address infractions ranging from charges in forex to non-compliance with approved nomenclature of charges.

“Such nomenclature of charges are 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,” she said.

Speaking shortly after the enforcement exercise, Ifeora, said NSC sealed APMDC’s premises following its non-compliance with Council’s directive as Port Economic Regulator.

She disclosed that NSC had invited APMDC for meetings to resolve the issues but they refused to honour the invitations.

She pointed out that the council was left with no choice but to carry out the enforcement by sealing APMDC’s premises, adding 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 warnings letters have been forwarded, asking them not to introduce new tariffs and charges without the consent of government but they refused to comply and rather they introduced another new tariff heading,” she said.

The council’s team led by Mr Adesina Sarumi, Assistant Director in the Regulatory Services Department, said that the enforcement exercise was informed by the need to address anomalies at APMDC.

He said the anomalies revolved around issues such as introduction of charges not approved by Council, making of payments in dollars on services rendered in Nigeria, among others.

Alhaji Bashir Ambi of Complaints Unit pointed out that the Complaints Unit had received series of complaints from the users of the services of APMDC.

All efforts to speak with APMDC proved abortive.