Some retirees of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) last week shut down port activities at the Rivers Port in Port Harcourt for several hours, over alleged non-payment of their retirement benefits.
An eye witness recounted to Shipping Position Daily correspondent in Port Harcourt that no fewer than 2,000 former NPA staff stormed the premises and barricaded the main entrance of the Port Harcourt port. Motorists could not also have access to the port as the as the retirees also took to the roads.
Apart from these, the protesting retirees prevented tanker drivers from gaining access into the port to lift petroleum products, while clearing agents were denied access to customs offices.
The protesting retirees lamented that their families are being made to face untold hardship as a result of the non-payment of the money owed them by the NPA. They called on the management of NPA to take urgent steps to pay all outstanding payment allegedly owed them.
According to them, some of their members had died while waiting for the retirement benefits that never came.
Speaking on the protest, a clearing agent in Port Harcourt Mr. Vitor Mkpa, recounted that “it was a sympathetic site to see fathers and mothers stricken with rage crying and rolling on ground begging to be paid their retirement benefits”
Meanwhile, chairman Dock Workers Branch of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) in Port Harcourt, Comrade Ebenezer Oputa has distanced his union from the protest at Rivers Port.
In a telephone interview with Shipping Position Daily in Port Harcourt, Comrade Oputa declared that at no time did dockworkers engage in any protest at Rivers Port.
http://shippingposition.com.ng/article/npa-retirees-shut-down-rivers-port-over-non-payment-benefits
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