‘Negligence of Workers Safety At Five Star Logistics Terminal Appalling’ – Adeyanju

BY FUNMI ALUKO

The Christmas Day operational accident that claimed the life of a dockworker at the Five Star Logistics Terminal, Lagos, has drawn the ire of the executive leadership of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), who called out the terminal management for neglecting workers safety.

Comrade Adeyanju and other union executive members on arrival at the terminal

The union’s position is coming on the heels of the painful death of a dockworker who reportedly died at the Five Star Logistics Terminal, Tin Can Island Port Lagos, on Wednesday 25th of December 2024,  when working on  onboard a vessel, MSC Samu.

An industry online newspaper, DAILY TREND reported that a liebher crane crushed the dockworker to death, stating that the deceased was without safety helmet when the incident occurred, and hence he suffered the crushing of his head, rather easily; leading to his immediate death.

According to the newspaper, MWUN President General, Comrade Adeyanju Adewale while confirming the development described the death of the worker as negligence on the part of the terminal operators and the stevedoring contractor.

Adeyanju who reportedly visited the terminal on Thursday 26th, alongside other leadership of the union expressed displeasure at what he described as avoidable loss of lives at the terminal, further noting that the terminal has become a death trap for workers.

Pained by the avoidable death of the dockworker, the maritime labour union leader has promised to petition the relevant departments of government and concerned bodies of the incident, and of the immediate and remote causes.

“Stevedoring is not a factory work, it is a global work, in other climes they are well taken care of, but here, it’s not like that. You have a vessel that involves close to 50 to 60 men working, and you have only one supervisor onboard supervising them.

“How do you expect the supervisor to know what is going on at the front, in the middle and at the back? Is he a robot?  I was mad at the management of that company because this is anti-labour practices.

“l discovered that many of the workers were putting on bathroom sleepers instead of safety boots, no overall uniforms and helmets. That is how many of the terminals treat dockworkers”, Adeyanju lamented, adding:

“NIMASA (Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency) should know what is going on because l am sure they don’t even know that is going on.”

Speaking further, the PG said “The late dockworker evacuated all the security personnel that slept under the crane. They have two supervisors that are supposed to manage the movement of the crane, but they were not on ground, this is pure negligence.

“Most of the terminal operators do not care about the welfare of the workers, it is only few of them that know about safety…we are talking about safety of human lives. If it was a responsible company, they ought to have come out by now to state what really happened” he was quoted as having said.

While addressing the workers inside the terminal on Thursday, the MWUN PG said that “The affected boy is not the staff that is supposed to evacuate everybody, but being a responsible worker that believes in safety, he urged everyone to leave the place. The People that were supposed to do the real job were not there.

“He is a wonderful boy, for evacuating those guys, and for the two gentlemen that were supposed to tell him ‘thank you’ and ask him to leave, there was nobody on ground.”

Comrade Adeyanju also reportedly condemned the stevedoring contractor of the terminal for having only one supervisor onboard and onshore while working on a large vessel.

“This is terrible, these are the things I have been telling you guys that say you want to take over from me, this is pure negligence, this is not port operation. A big vessel of this nature should have three supervisors, two on-board and one ashore so that they can rotate.

“We would write report against the stevedoring contractor too for their negligence, how can only one person be managing close to forty workers, its not done anywhere.”