Depot owners seek Buhari's intervention over closure of Waziri jetty

By Solomon Asowata

The Petroleum Products Depots Owners As­sociation of Nigeria (PPDOA) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the closure of the Waziri jetty in Lagos by the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).

Mrs Patricia Okereke, Executive Secretary, who made the appeal while speaking with newsmen on Tuesday in Lagos, alleged  that the jetty was closed by the NPA on Jan. 21,2021 despite a subsisting court order.

She also called on the Minister of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amae­chi, Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu and House and Senate Committees on Marine Transport and Jetties to urgently intervene in the issue.

According to her, the jetty served as a common user facility to  six tank farms along the axis which are Hensmor, A-Z Petroleum, G-Eurafric, One Terminal Nig. Ltd., AITEO Energy and NIPCO Plc.

Okereke said the NPA and the association had been in loggerhead over the jetty and its adjoining land for about 17 years and had on Feb. 26, 2008 gotten an injunction from Justice Abdullahi Mustapha of the Federal High Court, Lagos.

She said the order restrained the NPA from preventing the association's members from using the said jetty for their petroleum operations pending the determination of its suit against the authority over the dispute.

Okereke said the association had 

applied to the NPA to use  the adjoining land for housing its safety and fire equipment but was surprised that the authority leased the said land to another company involved in container business.

Okereke said it was after the association protested against the move citing safety implications and further congestion of traffic on that axis that the NPA shutdown the Waziri jetty.

She noted that the closure threatens the Federal Government's plan to move petroleum products to the Northern  and Middle belt regions using rail tracks from the depots.

"Given that the NPA closure of the jetty flouts an existing injunction, we ask the President to order NPA obedience of the law and to immediately re-open the Waziri jetty so that our petroleum operations may continue," Okereke said.

She also appealed to the president to direct NPA and its partner to cease all construction works on the jetty land in order to allow the court to determine the substantive case currently underway.

Okereke also pleaded with Buhari to grant a 10 years lease of the jetty land to the association so that it could be repaired and upgraded to enhance safety of lives and property in the locality.(NAN)