The dockworkers mem
bers of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (NWUN) operating in the South-South geo-political  zone seaports have threatened to paralyse   ports activities in the zone.
Speaking to The Tide in Port Harcourt on Wednesday a Senior  official  of the union, Comrade  Benjamin LongJohn,  said the union’s threat became necessary following an alleged  attempt  by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) management  to sack over  ten thousand  members  of the union in the south-south geo-political  zone.
LongJohn said the imminent massive sack of the Dock workers of the Seaports operating as On-board  Tally Clerks and Cargo Security  area  amount to ethnic  cleansing by the NPA management under its Managing Director, Alhaji Habibu Abdullahi.
He  said NPA had through a national daily newspaper in December 2014 indicated the imminent  sack of the Dock Labour Employers  and the entire  dock workers from the  first week of January 2015.
He said the  intention of the NPA authority was to replace the dock workers  with a preferred so called  cargo surveyors who are  cronies  of those at the helm of NPA affairs.
longJohn explained  that are average cargo ship could engage about sixty dock workers  per day whose wages are already built into the vessel charges, but only two cargo surveyors are required on a ship wit the same wages  as the  full complement of the tally clerks.
He said the jobs of the board tally clerks and cargo security men are internationally acceptable  and been in existence since  the commencement  of the Port Industry in Nigeria.
The union leader  said that the union members  perform  very critical  role as detecting  contrabands  imported into the country, stressing that tally  clerk keeps record of cargo loaded and discharged by each ship which helped the NPA guard against  under declaration of Cargo.
He said that the tally clerks work cooperatively with the security and other government  parastatals at the sea ports to detect any illegal  activities  but the  cargo surveyors  work with only storage plans and cargo manifest per the declaration of the ship agents.
LongJohn  appealed to the stakeholders in the maritime sector in the South-South geo-political zone to call  the  management  of NPA to order, thereby,  rescinding the decision to sack over ten thousand  dock workers eke-out legitimate livelihood at the sea ports.

Philip Okparaji