As the pain of the border closure by the federal government bite harder, the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCDMLCA) has said that so far nine lives have been lost at the Seme border.
Giving details of the loss, the Seme Coordinator of NCMDLCA, Mr. Godson Ogbonnanya told Shipping Position Daily last week in Lagos that five out the nine persons were importers that normally patronized Seme for their shipment while the remaining four were clearing agents operating at the border.
Ogbonnanya who refused to give identities of the deceased, however said they died as a result of the interest accumulating from the loans they collected from various banks to do their businesses.
“You can’t imagine somebody having about N500million on the road and there is no fixed time when the borders will be opened. Some could not sleep and most of them have lost their lives and some other agents too”
“At least, I can tell you authoritatively that we have lots about five importers and we have also lost about four clearing agents due to this border closure and also because of the money they were owing the banks”
“Because most of the monies they use for this importation are borrowed money from the banks and the more the money stay the more interest it incurs. Some of them cannot bear it, some lack shock observer, so they can’t bear it so they decided to go”
Ogonnanya begged the government to give operators whose good have been trapped for a long time due to the closure a two-month grace period to vacate their goods.
“What we are begging the federal government is that the decision they took concerning the border closure is alright but they should consider the next person. If you have two children and one of them is not doing something right you can’t because of the bad child and punish both the good child”
According to him, “We are not saying that they should not close the borders, but they should also consider some of us who are into legitimate trade. They should open their borders at least for about two months so that people can evacuate their goods and they can close it forever if they like”
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