ENL Consortium said it has facilitated the vaccination of dockworkers working at its terminal in line with its resolve to support the effort of the Federal Government to curtail the Covid-19 pandemic.
ENL Consortium is the operator of Terminals C and D at the Lagos Port Complex Apapa.
The dockworkers’ vaccination exercise, which was carried out from Thursday 27th to Wednesday 2nd February 2021, was conducted by authorised health officials.
Speaking on the exercise, Vicky Haastrup, the executive vice chairman/CEO of ENL Consortium, said the Federal and State Governments as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO) have said that Covid 19-vaccines are effective and can lower the risk of getting and spreading the virus.
According to her, vaccines also help to prevent serious illness and death in children and adults even if they get infected by Covid-19.
“Also, do not forget that port workers, including dockworkers, are essential workers. The ports must keep operating round-the-clock in order to keep the economy moving and to ensure the continuous supply of essential commodities to Nigerians. Dockworkers are important to ensuring continuity at the port, and we care for their well being,” she said.
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Continuing, Haastrup said: “These are the reasons why we deemed it necessary to invite health officials into the port and encourage dockworkers to get vaccinated in support of the effort by the government to put an end to this pandemic.”
The dockworkers expressed gratitude to the management of ENL Consortium for facilitating the vaccination exercise.
Kunle Bamimodu, a representative of the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN), who appreciated the gesture of the Executive Vice Chairman of ENL for bringing the initiative to the workplace, said it is not that convenient for workers to move around because of the nature of their work.
“Without mincing words, this is a nice gesture to the workers. We all appreciate her for bringing this vaccination exercise to the terminal. It makes it easy for us to get vaccinated,” Bamimodu said.
More than 600 dockworkers were vaccinated at the end of the exercise.
