The leaking sewage system.
Story by Dili Utomi.
There is palpable fear about a possible outbreak of disease at the Medlog bonded terminal at Abule Oshun area opposite the international trade fair in Ojo, Lagos.
The reason for the fear stems from the uncontrollably overflowing human waste that pours out of the sewage system right within the compound. The overflowing sewage leaks right out into the passageway that leads into the various offices of the different Government agencies that work within the compound.
Our correspondent tried to speak with the manager of the terminal, one Mr. Olumide, but he turned down our request on the excuse that he needs to get the approval to speak with Journalists from his headquarters. The various freight forwarders using the terminal have complained that the sewage has been leaking for about three months now and that the management of the terminal has paid no attention to the possible evacuation and repair of the sewage thereby neglecting to be alive to its responsibility.
More picture of the leaking sewage discharging sludge.
The terminal has a lot of complaints of negligence leveled against it by the various users of the terminal. A few freight forwarders have complained that the terminal owners pay more attention to cargoes being handled by the terminal to the detriment of those owned by other freight forwarders. There are also complaints of extra charges imposed on them to pay some extra fee on each container leaving the terminal rather than the usual way of paying as a collective job that has been officially cleared. Another complaint from the freight forwarders is the issue of delay in cargo clearance and different forms of extortion.
We reached out to the public relations officer of the Command in charge of the terminal, his response was that the standard operating procedure is that the terminal owners take charge of all physical responsibilities of the terminal and the complaint about the full and leaking sewage should be channeled to the operators of the terminal.
Since the terminal operator has not been sympathetic to the extent of listening to the complaints of the users as it concerns the smelly sludge oozing out of the sewage system, the general opinion is that the management of the Nigeria Customs Service should act and compel the terminal owners to do something about their complaints as they issued the license granted them to operate the terminal, this is in order to avert the outbreak of another disease.
A point to note is that, there is a different entrance and exit route for the management of the terminal other than the one meant for every other user of the terminal, this may be a reason for the rather less-than-caring attitude of the terminal managers.
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