Contrary to the claim of BUA Ports and Terminal Limited that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has run afoul of the court injunction, the authority has said that within the 18-month period, January 2018 when the injunction was secured and June 2019, when the Authority decommissioned Terminal B for safety concerns, BUA made full use of the terminal without interference.
Consequently, BUA berthed 117 vessels made up of liquid and dry bulk cargos. This alone has faulted every attempt to suggest that the NPA has flouted the orders of a court of law.
The total number of vessels berthed showed that BUA has been making full commercial use of the terminal even with the poor quay walls and low draft, said Adams Jatto, general manager, corporate and strategic communications, of the NPA.
Jatto, who made this claim in a statement, said Bua Ports and Terminals Limited also claimed to have written several requests for approval to perform remedial works on the berth.
“This is a laughable claim as BUA only commenced writing the authority requesting to reconstruct the berth after the concession termination notice had been issued following 10 years of refusal to fulfil this obligation. How can you request to reconstruct a berth which you have no legal claim to following the termination? This is yet another of their attempts at deceiving the Nigerian public,” Jatto questioned in the statement.
Recall that BUA had accused the NPA of not fulfilling its obligations including: refusal to abide by a court order, provision of security, dredging of the port, repair, renew and rebuilding of quay walls.
On security, Jatto who faulted BUA’s allegations that due to lack of adequate security, hoodlums and vandals, find their way into the terminal to cut the pipes and steel beams of the berths, said the NPA had a record of three reported cases that took place between 2014 and 2016, 10 years after BUA was supposed to have commenced and concluded the reconstruction works.
“These acts of vandalism (which were recorded on August 25, 2014 at 17:45 hours; June 27, 2016, and August 11, 2016 at 2:00 hours respectively) would not have happened if the company had complied with the agreement and conducted the reconstruction within 90 days stipulated within the concession agreement,” he said.
According to him, the collapsed state of the berth exposed the structures and allowed for the cutting by hoodlums. He, however, reiterated the Authority’s commitment to securing the berths.
“The decision to decommission Rivers Ports Terminal was out of safety concerns. This concern resulted from a May 16, 2019 BUA Ports and Terminals Limited letter informing us that the “jetty is in a state of total dilapidation and needs urgent repair or reconstruction. Our engineers have advised us that the jetty is liable to collapse at any moment,” he said.
He said the NPA would be an irresponsible regulator to look the other way and endanger the lives of Nigerians when a company painted this frightening situation in a letter sent to the Authority.
Stating that the NPA was prepared to diligently pursue the arbitration process, which it initiated despite the delay by BUA, said the continued media show cannot be used as a ploy to hamstring the NPA from performing its rightful oversight duties.
Recall that NPA said 10 years after the handover of the premises to BUA Ports and Terminal Limited, the company failed to commence the reconstruction of berths 5-8 as required by the agreement.
This forced the authority to issue a letter to BUA in order to draw their attention to non-compliance to the agreement. “Despite receiving the letter, dated February 3, 2016, BUA refused to honour this fundamental term of the lease agreement.
Consequently, the Authority served a default notice dated February 11, 2016 and another one dated July 27, 2016 on BUA. “The letter reminded that the non-compliance, which led to the deterioration of the berths 5-7 and the total collapse of berth 8, constitutes a breach of the concession agreement and a threat to the safety of lives around the terminal.”
On November 11, 2016, NPA said, it issued a 3-month termination notice to BUA with the intention to save users of the ports users from any untoward incident, citing default notices served on them in relation to the non-fulfilment of the obligations under the lease agreement.
“On receipt of the notice of termination, BUA sought and obtained a restraining order from the Federal High Court, Lagos on January 18, 2018 barring the Authority from giving effect to the termination. The NPA obeyed the order by not interfering in their operations for over 18 months until BUA wrote to the NPA on May 16, 2019, to complain that the state of the terminal is of safety concern,” NPA said.
NPA further said, “On carrying out an investigation, it was discovered that the jetty in BUA terminal was in a state of total dilapidation and needs urgent reconstruction as described by BUA Ports and Terminals Limited themselves, which forced the authority to decommission the terminal.
Mohammad Ibrahim, general manager, BUA Terminals Limited said that the company was losing huge amounts of money due to the decommissioning, adding that the jetty serves tank farm owners and fish farm owners.
Ibrahim said that commissioning of the factory is this month, but that the lack of a Jetty could undermine smooth its operation, wondering what is left of such a facility without a berth or jetty.
“Apart from BUA, the customers we serve will be affected. Those that depend on the terminal are in trouble. We realize $500,000 to $600,000 a month from the jetty out of which we pay NPA monthly lease of $1050. We also pay throughput fees of $1.29 per tonne,” said Ibrahim.
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