Warri, Delta – Chairman of Delta State Seaports’ Stakeholders Association, Mr. Oghomienor Emiko has refuted report of unreceipted four-thousand-naira levy, allegedly being collected at the gate of Delta Port, Warri.

Mr Emiko explained that the said amount was agreed upon in the last week of March (last month) between the ‘Mother Union’, where flour is offloaded inside the port (flour mill) and the leadership of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, NUPENG, Warri South Council as well as NARTO.

Mr. Emiko, who made the clarification in Warri, Monday April 8, during a press briefing, while reacting to a report headlined: “NPA Helpless as Warri Indigenes Kill Delta Ports with N4,000 Illegal, Un-receipted Fee Collections At Port Gates”, noted that the NPA Warri host communities, have no direct business with the collection of levy from truck operators, coming in and out of the Warri Port.

Whilst noting that the initial levy of two thousand naira that was increased to four thousand naira, was spilt between National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, NUPENG, Warri South Council and NARTO, Mr. Oghomienor, who is also the State (Delta) Treasurer of Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, averred: “If anybody is to object to the increment, it should be the leadership of the unions that agreed to pay the N4,000, not anybody to come and indict the host communities, making the general public to feel that Warri Port is not conducive for business.”

The Delta Seaports’ Association Chairman, who disclosed that the union has set machineries in motion to apprehend persons responsible for the collection of illegal revenue from truck operators after daily working hours of 6pm, stated: “We urge the Port Authority to set up a committee or instruct the Port Manager (Delta Port, Warri) to call the stakeholders, communities and leadership of the unions for a meeting, with a view to putting an end to the falsehood contained in the media report that emanated last week.”