A major Crisis has hit Calabar Port over the deprivation of worker’s entitlement
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that some of the dockworkers under the Aggrieved Dock workers of the Calabar Port who have been allegedly deprived of entitlement for over 13 years have debunked allegations of being in court over the non-payment of their entitlements for the said period.
A section of the workers insist that “We are not in court with the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA) and the ECM Terminal, K Marine or Maritime Workers Union of Calabar Port.”
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Speaking with The Nation, the Chairman of the aggrieved dock workers of the NPA in Calabar Mr James Amok, said they are not part of the suit that was filed against K Marine Limited Calabar Port, by a section of the aggrieved workers who are seeking their entitlements.
The workers are 19 in number, 10 have broken out to file a lawsuit, while nine are distancing themselves from the lawsuit, due to fears of manipulative ruling from the court against their course.
According to his explanation: “Some of the section of the aggrieved dock workers broke out from us 10 of them specifically on the 1st of November 2019 and filed a suit against K Marine Limited, This Happened while nine of us in the other section were still in the House Committee on Public Petition at the House of Representatives and It was then that we discovered that some section have broken out.”
He said complaints had been made to the Committee on Public Petition at the House of Representatives in Abuja, that some section of aggrieved dockworkers have broken out and filed a suit against K Marine Limited, of which they were advised to write a letter to disassociate themselves stating that they are not part of the team that filed a case which they did and it can stand as evidence if presented to the authorities.
He went further to say “In 2020, we decided to reach out to the authority that we serve. We served the office of the President General, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria and also the K Marine Limited, through the legal adviser Barr. Victor Okon through Umoh Inyang Chambers. All documents have been presented and since then responses have not been given that we are not part of the suit in Court.
“In 2023, I complained to the President General that the issues have not been resolved and he responded that he wasn’t aware if the issue had not been resolved, and rather advised that I should send everything to his Whatsapp which I did. On December 16, 2023, I complained to him again, it was then that he informed me that the matter was in court and I responded that we were not part of the suit.
