Chairman Special Task Force Zone 2 of FER?CSARA; Chief Austen Kelly disclosed this to the National Economic Management Team during a meeting in Lagos last week.
Chief Kelly alleged at the forum that Professor Sylvester Monye, Chairman of Presidential Monitoring Committee on Port Reforms as well as the Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Maritime Affairs; Mr. Leke Oyewole highjacked FERCSERA and that N600Million out of the N750Million budget allocated to the body is now missing.
He lamented that the body is currently underfunded by the Federal Government, and that it is only surviving on petty donations from various government agencies like Nigerian Shippers Council and other interest groups.
Chief Kelly revealed that in March 2014, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a budget of N750million to the committee and that subsequently; the committee was now removed from FERMA and made to report directly to Prof. Monye and Mr Leke Oyewole?.
"The committee was first established under Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), but was later high jacked by the Presidency through Professor Monye and Leke Oyewole, the Federal Government approved the sum of N750Million, we later heard through the grape vine that some other people have gone to claim N600?Million from the money, but as at today we have not seen any dime and we are still committed to do the job"
"We report directly to Professor Monye and Leke, when they found out the worth of this committee, it was no longer FERMA affairs and the Presidency took it over, I personally saw a budget we made which was meant for only Lagos, but as time goes on, the Presidency said it should be distributed round 12 geopolitical zones, this was why N750Million was awarded by the Federal Executive Council in March 2014"
"We are now aware that some people have gone to collect N600Million of that money?" Chief Kelly alleged.
Chief Kelly who is also a frontline freight forwarder stressed the need for government to fund FERCSERA if it is sincere about ensuring that traffic gridlock is removed from the port access roads.
He alleged that past meetings of the Committee chaired by Prof Monye have not been successful and that the resolutions of the meeting were never implemented.
According to him, the committee is in need of equipment to do the job, and only few organization's have been donating towing vans and patrol vehicles, but that the Federal Government have not come up with anything.
Chief Kelly said that the group has been able to secure two holding bays of 48 square meters which it intends to use in evacuating empty containers and trucks from port access roads in Lagos. In addition to this, he stated that FERCSERA ?has recruited about 68 operatives that have been deployed all around port access roads.
?Speaking further, he lamented that, "the last committee that we took over from was headed by Professor Sylvester Monye, we remember that during his own time, the committee was spending N94million every month to maintain the access roads and remove gridlock, on our own, we cannot even boast of spending N5million in a month because nobody is funding us"
"Nobody has been helping us out except the Nigerian Shippers’ Council?, and we have not been collecting fines, in our committee we have the Army, Navy, the Police, Civil Defense, FRSC, we are good at this job, we have been carrying out surveillance, we meet with AMATO, NATO, NUPENG, tank farm operators and so on" he said.
Chief Kelly regretted that the traffic situation in Apapa port has become an international embarrassment to the country.http://shippingposition.com.ng/article/fercsara-accuses-prof-monye-leke-oyewole-hijacking-agency%E2%80%99s-n750million-budget
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