AFTERMATH OF ATTACK ON AIRPORT CONTROLLER:

Five days after it personnel was attacked by clearing agenst and hoodlums at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos, Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service; Dikko Inde Abdullahi has ordered that major cargo handling terminals at the airport; Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCOL) and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) must remain shut.

Addressing a press conference in Lagos yesterday, Customs Area Controller of the Murtala Mohammed Airport Command of the Customs, Tajudeen Olanrewaju disclosed that the Customs CG has directed that ‎only perishable items, diplomatic cargoes and medical equipments that are trapped at the terminals should be cleared.

‎Olanrewaju explained that the cargo handling terminals and warehouses at the airport were closed down because of the presence of unauthorized crowd in restricted areas and non-conducive environment for collection of government’s revenue in line with customs import procedure.

Others were the inability of the terminal operators to provide required logistics for trade facilitation and protection of national security, as well as the attack on the Controller; Tajudeen Olanrewaju and his counterpart from FOU; Usman Turaki who went to the terminals for peaceful resolution of the face-off last week.

In order to assure national security and protect the revenue collection of the customs, He vowed that the terminals will remain shut until the terminal operators have displayed enough competence to handle the security situation at their terminals.

‎Addressing the media, the Controller said: "Certain areas have been restricted and it is the responsibility of the terminal operators to ensure that access to restricted areas are not allowed, a situation whereby a terminal operator allows agents and touts or anybody into its terminal does not guarantee national security, a situation where you find hundreds and thousands of people crowding the warehouses, what are they doing?"

‎"Continued lapse by terminal operators in these areas can no longer be tolerated and that is why their warehouses at the Murtala Mohammed section were shut down so that their management can address these issues that threaten national security and revenue accruable to Federal Government. Until they address this, the terminals remain shut", he declared.

He said that the terminal operators have displayed lack of capacity to enforce the rule of restriction to sensitive areas where cargoes are kept and that customs will not wait until bombs are detonated at the airport before it takes necessary actions.

He condemned the actions of some clearing agents, who according to him, attacked officers of the command last week Wednesday‎ in the process of carrying out their duties. The Controller described the agents as terrorist and economic saboteurs.

He added that, however, the management of the Comptroller‎ General of Customs has directed that cargoes that are perishable could be released through the tarmac, diplomatic parcels coming to Nigeria will be attended to, and legitimate goods already processed will also be released.

According to him, apart from theses, medicaments that have to do with suppressing Ebola virus, the Customs CG has directed the command to identify these items and allow them.

Olanrewaju said that the customs had in the past tried to dialogue with the operators and even signed a memorandum of understanding promising that they will uphold security and revenue collection, but that this has failed repeatedly.

"The ball is in their court to prove to us that they are ready to continue in business"‎ Olanrewaju stated.

Meanwhile, in an exclusive chat with Shipping Position Daily in his office, the airport Chapter Chairman of‎ Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Chief Nze Alloy Igwe lamented that the closure of the terminals has led to uncountable losses for the agents, the customs and the terminal operators.

He confirmed that there was ‘operational disagreement’ between the agents and customs officers at the airport, but lamented that the situation was not properly managed.

Igwe dissociated members of his association from the attack on customs officers, saying that no proper or sane agent will attack a customs officer.

"What happened on that sad day was that the matter dragged out into the open where people I may not consider to be agents took advantage, if you look at the rowdiness of the terminal and the porosity of the gate, you will agree with me that anybody can take advantage of that openness to cause mayhem, and that was what happened exactly"

He agreed that the reasons the customs locked up the warehouse are important issues that will benefit everybody.

"Practically I agree that the cargo handling companies are not efficient, but they are not equally the major principal actors that will affect clearing flow" he said.