16 January 2015, Lagos – The management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has said it has plan to sack 10,000 dockworkers.
It was responding to an open letter and petition against its management published as an advertorial published in the newspapers on Monday by a group which called itself “Concerned Dockworkers” of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) of Delta State.
NPA maintained that the group, in the advertorial, dished out misleading information to the public, saying: “In the letter, which was full of half-truths and innuendos, the writers alleged amongst other things that the NPA Management has “threatened to sack 10,000 tally clerks and security” category of dockworkers”, to replace them, with less than 80 persons as cargo surveyors.
“Ordinarily, the Management would not have reacted to this purported letters by the uninformed writers but considering the flagrant misinformation and the misinterpretation of trust in the letter, calculated to paint the management and particularly the Managing Director in bad light, we deem it most appropriate to put the record straight for the benefit of the general public especially stakeholders”.
The NPA management said it had never been the employer of dockworkers as prior to the 2005 port reform, the Authority ran a full service port system and was directly involved in cargo receipt from the vessel, its discharge and subsequent delivery to the consignee.
