ANLCA's Advocacy Group Presents Protective Equipment To NPA To Fight COVID-19

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The Advocacy for Maritime developments Association of Nigeria, a pressure group within the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) on Friday presented Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Tin Can Port Complex as part of efforts against spread of Coronavirus pandemic.

President of the advocacy group, Mr. Segun Alabi and his team were received by the Port Manager of Tin Can Island Port Complex, Umar Abubakar Garba.

Alabi said that as a group, they have a social obligation towards the port environment that has benefited its members so much, and that as a socially responsible organisation, there was need to support the NPA in the fight against COVID-19.

The items presented were; hand gloves and face masks.

Alabi said the donation was provoked by global realities, as well as the large number of people accessing the port without face masks and hand gloves.

“We found out that it the last one month when the lockdown commenced, people are still accessing the port without being protected, so we decided to get these items to present to your health department so that you can help us give it to people within the port as our own fight against the Coronavirus”

“One of our cardinal point is to be socially responsible to our immediate constituency and the maritime sector at large, what we have done today is to show our love and our fight against the Coronavirus pandemic” he said

The NPA NPA Port Manager, Abubakar Umar in his response, appreciated the team, saying that it is good they are aware of the danger of the Coronavirus.

Umar lamented that freight forwarders and truck drivers are the major headache in the effort to ensure social distancing at the port in order to control the spread of the Coronavirus.

According to him, some of the freight forwarders had protested at the Five Star Logistics Terminal when the terminal decided to reduce the number of crowd accessing its facility.

While commending the effort of the Advocacy group, Umar said “From what we have seen with people, no one wants to donate, they are always expecting from the government”

“We all know in this country that Tin Can Island Port is a different port, we have been trying our efforts, this greatest number of people giving us headache apart from the truckers are the freight forwarders, if you look at it, the dockworkers are already inside the port, your members are the ones you see troop into the port”

“Sometimes when you event try to control their movements, they dont understand that it is for their own good, they are always refusing to understand, just last week, they demonstrated at Five Star Logistics Terminal because the terminal operator decided to maintain social distancing and reduce the number of people coming in”