Deaths in the Ports

Ibrahim Bio, Transport Minister

Deaths caused by faulty cranes in the nation’s Ports and Terminals continue to rise, as regulators look the other way
By George Umunnakwe
Ordinarily, the Ports are supposed to be a place where vessels berth to discharge cargoes. But in recent times, the reverse seems to be the case as deaths now bearth at the terminals.
Equally, this has led to slow pace of activities at the affected terminals, as dockworkers who are exposed to the many mechanical failures which result to instant deaths now work with their hearts in their mouth.
Investigations reveal that while Sifax Shipping, a cargo handling operator, leads the pack with a total of nine deaths since it acquired the terminal along the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, ENL Consortium, operators of terminals C and D in Lagos Ports complex, Apapa trail behind with two deaths. Nigerdock Shipyard and Continental Shipyard in Apapa closely follow behind.
For instance, the killing of three dockworkers on Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at the premises of Sifax Terminals came at a time when the management of AP Moller Terminals celebrated 169 day accident-free for its workers.
Giving details of the death of his three colleagues, Ochuko Wisdom, said it happened when the hydraulic of a crane failed, causing the driver to lose control. “Suddenly, we heard a very loud noise and the next thing we saw was that a 20-feet container had fallen on top of two of our colleagues who were working near the container bay”, Wisdom told The Source.
Speaking further, Wisdom who has worked in the terminal for quite sometime now explained that when the incident happened, it took the effort of other dockworkers in the premises to get another crane to first of all shift the faulty crane, before they could position to remove the fallen container. “When eventually the container was removed, my brother, the bodies of our colleagues had been smashed beyond recognition. And so we had to mobilise to move the body to the Ikeja General Hospital Mortuary,” he stated.
But Wednesday, May 13, 2009 will not be the first time such an incident will occur in the terminal embroiled in a take-over controversy.
The Source gathered that more than nine deaths have so far been recorded since 2006 when the Felix Owolabi-led company took over the terminal in a controversial manner. This equally has led members of staff, and indeed dockworkers, to opine that there is something fishy about the terminal. They are instructively not alone in holding this view as a cross-section of stakeholders who would not want their names mentioned wondered why terminal operators often experience hydraulic failure.
In 2008, for instance, it took the intervention of the leadership of the dockworkers led by Comrade Onikolaese Irabor, and other stakeholders to prevent the breakdown of law and order at the terminal. The aggrieved dockworkers were protesting the death of a colleague who was smashed by a moving crane.
Wisdom explained that over the past two years, efforts to make the terminal operators to replace faulty cranes have not yielded positive result. Rather, the mechanical department of the company were asked to continually work on the crane.
While the uproar caused by the accident lasted, Oliver Omajuwa, Corporate Affairs Manager of Sifax Shipping gave a different version of the incident.
In a press release, he explained that the death in the terminal was caused when “a staff of the company lost control of his car and ran into stacked containers.” He added that “one of the containers fell on the car and the man died instantly.”
He was, however, silent on the numerous deaths the terminal has recorded in recent times. And efforts to speak with him concerning this could not yield any positive result as calls put to his MTN mobile line were continually forwarded into voicemail. As at press time, enquiries made through the voicemail recorder were not answered.
Omajuwa, in the release, hinted that the company is working on welfare package for the family of the deceased. The Corporate Affairs Manager of Sifax Shipping also noted that the cargo handling company exercised a lot of precautions and so “it was unfortunate that the accident happened.”
If precautions were the watchword, perhaps, the two deaths recorded in the premises of ENL Consortium, operators of Terminals C and D at the Lagos Ports complex in Apapa, could have been avoided. For while on duty in March 2008, two dockworkers who were assisting in the discharge of fish from a vessel called Green Majestic were killed by the crane of the ship which suddenly snapped.
Angered by the sordid incident, dockworkers stormed the premises, damaged properties worth more than N500million. Parts of the properties damaged by the dockwokers include 20 vehicles belonging to ENL, computer softwares developed at a cost of N100 million; lockers, windows and various other properties.
The dockworkers broke loose when efforts to detain the vessel and compensation paid to the diseased families failed.
Speaking on the incident, Mark Walsh, General Manager of the terminal, said that the dockworkers destroyed everything in sight.
“Sadly those who destroyed and looted the company’s properties were not the company’s dockworkers, but hoodlums who took advantage of the unfortunate incident to wreck havoc,” he explained, exonerating the company’s workers.
Adding to the claims by Walsh, Irabor, who at the time was President of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) also disowned the destructive dockworkers noting that “dockworkers are not vandals or criminals. So we do not go about destroying properties.”
He, however, regretted that two dockworkers had to be killed in circumstances that has made the dockworkers vulnerable to avoidable accident. “The protest by these dockworkers is a clear indication that they are not happy with current situation at the ports,” Irabor said.
Barely two months after the ENL incident, another dockworker was crushed to death. This time, it was at the Nigerdock Shipyard, Snake Island, Apapa. Godstime Aigbedeon, a 27-year-old casual worker was crushed to death by a heavy equipment. He was killed when a rickety scalfold - the ordinary type used for building houses - which he was using to work on the rudder of a ship snapped and fell on him, killing the 27-year-old instantly.
The Nigerdock killing was, sadly, a repetition of the 2007 killing of two dockworkers by a rickety crane at the Continental Shipyard, Apapa.
The Source gathered that the management of the ship repair yard had on many occasions disregarded warnings not to use the faulty crane for off-loading from any vessel at the shipyard.
In a move aimed at putting a stop at the incessant killing of the dockworkers, Prince Okechukwu Chukwuemeka, then Ministry of Transport had in 2008 set up a four-man committee headed by Captain Adamu Biu, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), to recommend ways of bringing the ugly incidents to an end.
Part of the committee’s recommendations was that various agencies in the ministry, namely, the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), NSC, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), and other relevant agencies should meet periodically with the dockworkers and indeed concessionaires and terminal operators to resolve some gray areas in equipment maintenance and acquisition.
This meeting, The Source gathered, has failed to hold ever since as many of the terminal operators continue to operate with rickety crane till date.
Perhaps, if the agencies are alive to their responsibilities, most of the deaths recorded would have been avoided.