COMTUA encouraging sharp practices along seaport corridor — PSST

In 2021, the Federal Government set up the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) in the nation’s ports to carry out necessary anti-corruption activities that would help dismantle corruption networks fuelling traffic logjam within and outside the port. In this interview with select newsmen, the National Coordinator of the PSTT, Mr. Moses Fadipe, reveals challenges facing the unit.

HOW has the PSTT fared thus far in tackling corruption along the nation’s port access roads?

It has not been easy. We have had to contend with people that were supposed to be partners in this anti-corruption crusade. We recently got a newspaper publication saying that truckers are accusing PSTT officials of collecting bribe. We all know that the PSTT is a creation of the Presidency that is over-sighted by the Office of the Vice President, with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) all involved in its operation. So, accusing the PSTT of being involved in corruption is like accusing government of being part of the corrupt practices at the ports. When we first saw the report, the first thing we did was to write to the media house and the person who made the allegation, that is the National President of the Council of Maritime Transport Unions and Association (COMTUA), Mr. Yinka Aroyewun; asking them to within three days confirm the story by giving evidence to it or retract it. However, after the three-days elapsed, instead of give evidence to the report or retract it, the report kept getting viral. At that point, as the National Coordinator of the PSTT, I had to make a formal report to all the agencies in the PSTT, including the Office of the Vice President. Three weeks after, I got a call from the Directorate of State Services (DSS) that they will like to see me over the matter. At the DSS, I was interrogated and asked a lot of questions concerning the said publication, and I responded and ensured my response was put down in black and white. Some few days ago, I started hearing that the COMTUA and the media house are saying that the PSTT is using DSS to witch-hunt them. I was invited by the DSS to provide all the necessary information that is correct. If COMTUA has evidences, I think it will be normal for them to make such available to the DSS. We are not witch-hunting anybody.

With PSTT having presence across ports all over Nigeria, as the National Coordinator based in Lagos, are you very sure that none of your members collected bribe somewhere, maybe outside Lagos?

I can authoritatively say that none of my team is culpable in any bribe collection activity across Nigerian ports, be it Onne, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Warri, Delta ports or the ports in Lagos. As the National Coordinator in Lagos, I know which beat every member of the PSTT works at a particular time of the day across all the ports in Nigeria. We work as a team and have hours of duty. If anybody calls me and says something is happening at a particular location, I can boldly say if it’s my team or not because we have time of duty. If anybody is found wanting, it is so easy to fish such person out. PSTT officials don’t work alone. Anywhere you see my team; you will see all the members of the government agencies domiciled in the PSTT with inscriptions stating their organizations name. It’s not that you will see five people going this way and another five people going the other way. PSTT officials work as a team in a convoy. Every day, we hold meetings with the Team Leads to know how their schedule will go for the day. If anything goes wrong, the Team Lead will be held responsible.

In the said report, the PSTT was accused of using third-party facilities to defraud truckers. How true is this?

The story line of that libelous report said that the PSTT has a way of detaining trucks in some third-party facilities, where all the proceeds of monies collected from such detained trucks find their way back to the PSTT. We have asked the proponents of that report to prove it that proceeds from such third-party facilities find their way to the PSTT. The so-called third-party facilities don’t belong to us. We have nothing to do with these facilities where trucks are detained. When we apprehend a truck, up till the time that the arrested truck will be released, there is a process that the owner of the truck must follow. For example, when we arrest a truck for illegal parking on the ports access road, we will tow the truck to any of the nearest parks which are not owned by us. We don’t own any park. All the parks that we use are third party facilities. The park will register the truck that it has been brought there. While the truck is inside the park, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) will take over the prosecution of such truck. The arrested truck papers will be requested for by the FRSC. That’s why I said there is a process. If the FRSC finds out that the truck documents are not valid, or that the driver does not have a valid Driver’s License, the truck or the driver then proceeds to validate all required documents. Part of the validation of vehicle documents comes with different fine which the truck owner pays. Those payments are made to the FRSC via a TSA account. The longer it takes for the truck owner to validate his truck documents, the longer time the truck stays inside the park. For trucks belonging to big firms like Flourmills, Honeywell and others, their trucks will leave the park same day it was arrested because their documents are always complete. For trucks belonging to maritime truck association like COMTUA, their trucks spend days inside the park because their documents are not always complete. After fulfilling the entire requirement by the FRSC, the arrested truck will then fill a form called Letter Of Undertaken that it will never constitute that nuisance again. That’s how we run our operations. The PSTT does not collect a dime from any truck owner or driver. We only arrest and move the truck to the nearest park. We have no relationship with any park, which is why we tow arrested trucks to the nearest park. The FRSC takes over from there and issues a Remita to the defaulting truck to go and pay into TSA account of the government. Aside trucks that belong to Honeywell, Flourmills and other big companies, most of the trucks that we arrest don’t have valid documents.

With the process listed, why is COMTUA now alleging that the PSTT officials collect bribes through third-party facilities?

Before we started the dismantling of corruption networks fuelling traffic gridlock along the port corridor, we called all the truckers association, be it COMTUA, Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO), Fleet Owners Association (FOA), RTEAN and others to a meeting and laid down the rules of engagement before them. COMTUA, alongside all the truckers’ association agreed that we won’t apply sentiment if any of their members’ truck gets arrested. However, it is disturbing to find out that COMTUA, one of the groups that sat with us to agree on the rules of engagement of the PSTT, regularly calls me anytime the groups’ truck is arrested. The COMTUA President will call me, telling me that we cannot arrest his members’ truck because it is carrying cargoes worth millions of Naira. I have had to turn the COMTUA president down severally anytime trucks belonging to his members are arrested because that is not part of what we agreed to implement when we started. If we have to change the narrative of what is happening along Nigeria’s port access roads, the change has to start from you and I. We don’t have issues with the other truckers association like AMATO, RTEAN and others. It is only COMTUA that we keep having issues with. I have suffered two attacks because we have insisted on doing the right thing along the ports access roads. Just because we have refused to allow sacred cows in the cause of arresting errant truckers, COMTUA is claiming we are collecting bribes.