Oluyinka Onigbinde
The Chairman of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Onne Seaport Chapter, Mr. Mike Ebeatu has stated that sea piracy in the eastern ports has been politicized even though he acknowledged the reality of piracy on the eastern waters.
Ebeatu, while speaking with our correspondent on the sideline of the recent thanksgiving ceremony of ANLCA last weekend noted that, although piracy is a reality at the Eastern ports he however said it has been politicized, even as he argued that there is no part of the world where you don’t encounter pirates.
He said the problem is being magnified as if it’s the Eastern waters that piracy incidents take place alone.
The freight agent also called the attention of the federal government to the numerous problems limiting port activities at Onne, to include port access roads, multiple Customs alerts and arbitrary interception of cargoes.
He noted that the challenges in Onne are similar to those found in Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports.
According to him, “piracy is a reality at the Eastern ports. However, it has been so politicized because there is no part of the world where you don’t encounter pirates. When it comes to the channels at the Eastern ports, the problem is so magnified as if that’s the only place these incidents happen
Speaking about the relationship between Customs and customs agents, he said, “the relationship between Customs and freight agents could be likened to that of a husband and his wife.
“We can agree and disagree on some things just like a husband and wife relationship. Some of those things were resolved after the protest last year but some of them need some processes to be addressed and we’re patient. We still have a very good relationship with Customs despite our differences.
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“At Onne seaport, there’s nothing so spectacular. The challenges include multiple alerts from Customs on the same consignments. Almost every consignment has this issue but we have been engaging the Customs Service on that and we have also taken the deliberation to the National Assembly. They have promised to harmonize the whole alerts so there could be one single alert for all alerts. There’s hope that very soon this issue of alert will be sorted out.
“There is also the problem of multiple intervention of cargoes from Customs units like the Federal Operations Unit, Customs Strike Force, and Customs Police”
Describing the Onne port access road as a major burden, he said: “It’s not impressive at all. You would recall that sometime last year, the community had to shut down the port access roads because of the dilapidated state. The government came in and promised to work on the roads but nothing has been done up till date. The situation is appalling and it drives away business. There are also lots of security challenges such as kidnapping, robbery, etc as a result of the bad roads. We believe and keep praying that the government addresses this problem.” he stated.
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