Victor Ahiuma-Young and Simon Ebegbulem
27 August 2007
Benin — MARITIME Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), weekend in Benin, Edo State, challenged President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to put his avowed commitment to the rule of law in practice in the nation's maritime sector by halting the concessioning of the Ports and other alleged illegal activities in the name of Port reforms as there is no law backing the reforms.
President-General of MWUN, Comrade Onikolease Irabor, who stated this while addressing the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union, also urged the current leadership of the National Assembly to order the government to stop the balkanisation of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) by creating three autonomous Ports from NPA which the last House of Representatives had described as illegal because there is no law to that effect.
Comrade Irabor who is also a vice President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), called on the National Assembly to stop the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) in its attempts at scrapping the NPA and demanded a total rejection of rejection of the Ports and Harbourrs Executive Draft Bill 2005 which was submitted to the former National Assembly, alleging that the draft bill is design to legalise all the illegalities being perpetrated in the Ports.
According to him: " We passionately call on the Executive and Legislative arms of government on the following demands: The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) must not be allowed to go into extinction as proposed by BPE. All anti people policies of the former government be jettisoned. Rejection of the Ports and Harbour executive Draft Bill 2005 which was submitted to the former National Assembly. Reversal of the illicit privatization of the ancillary services of Nigerian Ports Authority.
Call on the Federal Government as a matter of urgency to make all access roads to the Ports free for smooth flow of traffic. We call on the Federal Government to stop all illegal activities being perpetuated in the Ports under the guise of port reform as there is no legal backing for the exercise. We demand as a matter of urgency, for the payment of the Dockworkers who have not been paid their disengagement benefits."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
