General Manager of Port Terminal Operations Nigeria Limited, (PTOL), Mr Ephraim Efiota, has decried incessant reports of insecurity in the Nigerian waterways, saying it attracts additional surcharges from importers.
Efiota who stated this at the commissioning of Reach Stackers heavy duty machines within the premises of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Port Harcourt Ports, said several media reports on insecurity on the Nigerian waterways frightened foreign investors and countries where local importers brought in goods.
He further said these countries took advantage of such reports to impose all kinds of charges on importers, appealing that the security situation in the country was not as bad as being reported.
Efiota noted that some of the countries where imported goods were coming from relied on the old statistics about insecurity on the waterways to impose charges on imported goods.
The PTOL boss, however, said that the security challenges in the country were being tackled by the Federal Government and urged the media to imbibe the culture of developmental journalism.
”When we talk about insecurity in Nigeria, especially the waterways, we have to balance it and be careful on the kind of information we give out so that we don’t shoot ourselves on the foot. I believe that there was a time insecurity was on the high on the waterways, but recently we are not hearing much of these attacks anymore.
“Some persons may say there is so much insecurity on our waterways, probably believing on the statistics of the past. By the time we are saying this to the international communities, we are just giving false information and what does this lead us to, you find them imposing all kinds of surcharges such as insecurity surcharge, congestion surcharge on our importers and so on.
“The issue of insecurity on the waterways has drastically reduced,” he said, adding that business activities at the Port Harcourt terminal has increased because of reduction of crime on the waterways.
Meanwhile, General Manager of NPA, Port Harcourt Port, Engr. Yanus Ibrahim Anji, has called on the management of PTOL to take advantage of the opportunities available to it and increase its facilities so that the company can deliver quality services to the customers.
”We congratulate PTOL for this feat. We want to call on them to get more equipment so that they can deliver quality services to their customers,” Anji stated.

Dennis Naku