VANGUARD MARITIME, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2019. PAGE 2
Hannover General Bonded Terminal located within Tin-Can Island Port, Lagos, last week, witnessed a major protest at its faculty over an alleged illegal demurrage. Investigations revealed that the demurrage was traceable to poor handling equipment which resulted in four days, even as management allegedly charged demurrage over the four day period.
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), has, however, stepped into the matter to ensure that importers and their agents were not subjected to any maltreatment.
Troubled reported stated when the faculty loading karma machine broke down and was not fixed until after four days. Hannover Terminal operator insisted on charging demurrage on the number of days the problem lasted. Apart from the faculty handling equipment, users of the faculty also complained of lack of maintenance of the access road and terminal floor which has been attracting extra logistics cost for importers and their agents.
The Director of Consumer Services of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Chief Cajetan Agu, who visited the terminal to address the protesting agents said the Council would stop further stemming of containers to Hannover until the floor of the terminal have been properly paved, warning that failure to do so may force the Council to shutdown the terminal.
