Enforcement operatives of the NSC sealing the premises of APMDC.

The Nigerian Shippers Council has said that its decision to shut down the operations of Associated Port & Marine Development Company APMDC Limited, was a matter of last option after several warnings, which the company’s management refused to heed to.

The Complaints Unit of the council had in the last few months received series of complaints from the users of the services of APMDC bothering on non- compliance with regulatory directives and arbitrary charges among several others, which the management refused to address.

Speaking shortly after the enforcement exercise, the Deputy Director, Monitoring and Enforcement Division, Mrs. Celine Ifeora, said the Cargo Consolidator had been issued with several notices to address infractions ranging from charging in foreign currencies to non-compliance with approved nomenclature of charges such as Transport Adjustment charges, non-vessel operating carriers. The company was also accused of outright disregard of terms of mediation reached with the council and unresolved complaints of over one and half years, among others.

Ifeora also disclosed that NSC had invited APMDC to meetings in order to resolve the issues but regretted that the management failed to honour the invitations.

“The NSC as Port Economic Regulator cannot wait forever while a service provider keeps exploiting stakeholders, so we were left with no choice but to carry out the enforcement by sealing APMDC’s premises. APMDC would remain closed until all the issues are resolved.

“They don’t want to listen to any agency representing the government. That is why we went out to carry out the enforcement exercise on APMDC. Two warnings letters have been forwarded asking them not to introduce new tariffs and charges without the consent of government but it refused to comply but rather they introduced another new tariff heading”, Ifeora also said.

An Assistant Director in the Regulatory Services Department of the council, Adesina Sarumi, who led the enforcement team said that the enforcement exercise was informed by the need to address anomalies at APMDC.

These, he said, revolved around issues such as introduction of charges not approved by council, imposing dollar-denominated payments for services rendered in Nigeria, among others.

It was however not easy to reach the management of APMDC at the time of filing this reports.