Donated Calif. wheelchairs trapped in Nigerian port for 11 months
A 40-foot container of wheelchairs, provided by a California donor to help disabled Nigerians, has been trapped at the Nigerian port of Onne for almost a year by the inaction of local port authorities.
The 550 wheelchairs — the first of similar donations planned by philanthropist Don Schoendorfer — were donated through the privately run charity, the Jubilee Christian Center.
The shipment arrived in Onne in August 2006 and though cleared by the country's national customs officials, has not been able to get past the local Onne customs officer.
Chika Nnaemeka, the evangelist head of the Jubilee group, told the Daily Champion in Lagos that he regrets that the system in Nigeria was trying to frustrate the project. Nnaemeka also told the paper that at one point he had to intervene to prevent the shipment from being auctioned off as an overtime consignment.
The evangelist criticized the inaction of the Onne official for holding up a project that has seen successful deliveries of wheelchairs to Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, the Philippines and China.
“Because the consignment is still trapped here, at least 550 Nigerians are crawling on their knees and buttocks,” Nnaemeka told the Daily Champion.
Importers’ agents and exporters, speaking anonymously to the paper, said the refusal of the port official to delegate authority during his frequent absences led to the current situation with the wheelchairs.
Donated Calif. wheelchairs trapped in Nigerian port for 11 months
