The over 5,000 Maritime Workers dismissed by the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) without payments of their gratuities or any compensations between the year 2,000 and above have sent a Save Our Soul (S.O.S) message to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly.

The workers led by their Chairman, Comrade Olumegbo Babatunde, appealed to the nation’s leaders during the ‘five days’ Labour Rights Seminar organised by the Bureau of African Human Democratic Rights (BALHADER), a human rights group to mark ‘The 26th International Criminal Justice Day in Nigeria” held on 17th July, 2024, at Uncle Jay Hotel, Olodi Apapa.

According to him, over 5,000 workers of the Maritime Workers Union were disengaged in one day and more in subsequent years without any form of compensation.

He reiterated that all efforts made to get compensated or be reinstated proved abortive as nobody was listening to their plight.

In continuation, he restated that some of them had spent over 20-35 years in service as Dockworkers and they were sent pack without a dine.

He said, ‘Indeed, over 497 of our members are dead, some are with lifetime injuries while some are lying critically ill in their homes without any respite and this is the more reasons why we are calling on the workers President, President Tinubu, and our National Assembly to urgently come to our aid before all of us drop dead.’

Comrade Olumegbo maintained that the statement made by the former Transport Minister, Alhaji Muazu Sambo, in 2022, that the federal government is not owing any dockworker due to ports’ concession is totally false.

During this interactive session with our Correspondent, he reaffirmed that his most painful aspect of the case is the high number of their colleagues that have died and their various families are left in abject poverty when they had struggled.

In a similar vein, he stated that due to the negligence and sufferings of their members, they had written a letter to the President during the month of March 2024 which was duly acknowledged by his office and we are waiting for his kind responses with the National Assembly.

Comrade Monday Muntari, one of the affected workers, stated the undue interference by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) who supposed to protect them since 2001 has not helped matters as it went ahead to conduct an election for the MWUN against an Order restraining them from doing so and in 2021 another similar election was conducted without the consent and approval by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity in Abuja.

He said the elections had brought in illegal executive into the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria and therefore, for the sake of justice. “We are calling for the immediate dissolution of the said executive.”

Recounting his ordeals, Comrade Adeoti, one of the wounded workers with broken legs called on the Federal Government to urgently set up a panel of inquiry to unravel the mystery surrounding the non-payment of so many sacked Dockworkers at the various Seaports in Nigeria, most especially, Apapa.

In his reaction, Comrade Uchenna Uzoije, a human Rights Activist and the Programme Director of BALHADER, called on Federal Government to ensure Perpetual Casualisation among Dockworkers in our various Seaports in Nigeria is eradicated.

He said the inhuman act has brought untold hardship and slavery among Dockworkers in Nigeria. (Daily Independent)

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