Customs Agents, Shippers Reject Demurrage Waiver

The Association of Nigerian Customs Licensed Agents (ANCLA) and shippers have rejected the 40 per cent demurrage waiver which shipping companies offered them for their cargoes caught in the just-suspended nationwide strike.

The shippers (importers) and ANCLA members told newsmen on Wednesday in Lagos that they would not accept any compensation short of 100 per cent.

Mr John Ofobike, Chairman, Apapa Area I Chapter of ANCLA, told newsmen that they were picketing the offices of the shipping firms to register their displeasure.

Ofobike wondered why shippers and customs agents should be punished over the strike called by organised labour to press the Federal Government to reverse the pump price of petrol from N141 to N65.

“We cannot accept that. We are insisting on 100 per cent waiver of the demurrage for all the days the strike lasted.

“If not, we will continue to picket the shipping companies,” he told newsmen.

Chairman, Tin-Can Island chapter of ANCLA Mr Kayode Farinto, told newsmen that all chapter chairmen had resolved that the shipping companies must completely waive the demurrage.

“I see no reason why they should charge Nigerians demurrage for the period of the strike,’’ our correspondent quotes Farinto as saying..

General Secretary, Shippers’ Association of Lagos State, Mr Jonathan Nicol, said that all port operators might go on strike if the shipping firms refused to budge.

Nicol said importers were surprised that the shipping companies charged demurrage for the strike period.

“They (shipping companies) want to start another trouble in the maritime industry. It is going to be big because all maritime practitioners will be involved.

“The Federal Ministry of Transport should call the shipping companies to order because normally during strike or public holidays, importers do not pay demurrage,’’ Nicol said.

According to him, why must an importer pay for a national event such as the strike or a public holiday.

Our correspondent reports that the shipping companies insisted on charging demurrage because they would also pay demurrage to