The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said yesterday in Lagos that owners of imported overtime containers of electricity equipment belonging to the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have started moving them out of the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal.
The Zonal Coordinator of NCS, Zone `A`; Assistant Comptroller-General Eporwei Edike, stated this in an interview.
The containers were transferred to the terminal between 2011 and 2015, after their owners refused to clear them out Lagos ports.
He said apart from the PHCN containers, two states- Delta and Jigawa, which also had consignments in the Custody of Customs have commenced clearance of their consignments which had also overstayed in the terminal.
One of the state governments had 50 containers of Keke NAPEP, while the other had 20 containers of building equipment.
Edike said that if the overtime containers were out of the terminal, more overtime cargoes would be accommodated to relieve major ports in Lagos of congestion.
The zonal coordinator said that on the other hand, the Ikorodu terminal would also be saved the problem of congestion.
According to him, the service made several appeal to both PHCN and the states to pick the containers which had overstayed in the terminal.
Edike said that the Comptroller-General of Customs; Retired Col. Hameed Ali gave the order in order to decongest the terminal.
“It is incumbent on all officers including myself to support the CGC to achieve his policy thrust anchored on transparency, honesty and integrity,’’ the zonal coordinator said.
He said the service had also reduced charges to enable the owners take their goods from the terminal.
“A lot of containers loaded with electricity equipment belong to PHCN. These containers were deployed from the ports,’’ Edike added.
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