The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has picked holes in the strength of the Indemnity Form, being taunted by clearing agents as the tool that is needed to exonerate them in cases on drug importation.
The NDLEA told Shipping Position Daily exclusively that the seemingly-all important form does not exonerate a clearing agent once caught in the web of importation of hard drugs.
According to the Commander of the NDLEA at Tin Can Port, Mr Mohammed Abubakar, the Indemnity Form does not in any way exonerate the clearing agent from complicity in drug importation cases.
He said, being the sole known principal to the importer, the clearing agent is needed to get the importer of the drug, and can not hide under any indemnity.
“You would find out that most of the time when we make an arrest, we have serious problems at our hands trying to identify the actual person involved. That is why most of the times; it is the clearing agents that bear the brunt because they are the people interfacing between us and importers. We arrest them because it is through them we can get to the importer”, he explained.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that a front line member of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Mr Sunday Oyebola was recently arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in connection with alleged importation of psychotropic drugs.
And following the arrest, the acting President of ANLCA, Dr Kayode Farinto ANLCA directed its members to ensure that importers sign an Indemnity Form before any cargo will be cleared at the ports. He said the form would exonerate the agents from any liability.
He had stated that the association has over time urged its members to ensure that the indemnity form is signed before deciding to take up a consignment for clearance.
But, speaking specifically to this, the NDLEA Commander explained that, contrary to the belief by ANLCA, “the only thing it (Indemnity Form) does is that it indemnifies the clearing agent against any loss or inconvenience it may suffer during the process of trying to clear the goods out of the port”.
“Just like the shipping lines, the clearing agents should be able to know their customers too. If there’s any problem, all we expect from them is to tell us who the importers are. Those are the people we are interested in, because they are the ones responsible for what is inside the container”, he added.
Acknowledging that “the clearing agents were not there when the container was loaded”, he nevertheless. disclosed that, “the major problem we have is when they take sides with the importer against the agency. In that case, they can be treated as an accomplice”.
According to him, “they are just middlemen, they are not criminals as far as we are concerned and we don’t arrest them to incarcerate them or charge them to court. We only arrest them in order to get to the importer. As an agent, he has some responsibility to his principal and the principal has his own responsibility to the agent. So to get the principal, we must go through the agent.”.
He also urged that shipping lines should have a database and know their customers when cases of drug importation arise.
“Like in terms of the shipping lines, we want a situation whereby they can be able to apply what is known in the banking sector as ‘Know Your Customer. I think it is very important especially now when anybody can bring any kind of fictitious name and addresses on the Bill of Laden and ship manifest. It is not our work. Some people are using these loopholes to do some kind of criminal activities. We are looking forward to seeing that before the shipping lines allow any of their clients to bring in anything to the country, they should provide their international passport whereby we can be able to establish their actual identity. So if there’s anything incriminating, illegal or illicit in those consignments, then they can be easily found”, he stated.
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Giving an insight into NDLEA/Customs relationship as it relates to drug seizures in the ports, the NDLEA Commander; Mr Mohammed Abubakar hinted that customs modus operandi is affecting the war against drugs importation at the nation’s seaports.
He frowned at the practice whereby Customs officers delay NDLEA investigations by first seeking clearance from their headquarters in Abuja.
He said: “It is something that can be rectified from the higher authorities. The security of the country is for the benefit of all of us. It is not something we should joke about due to peculiar interests. It is a collective responsibility of all of us. All these bottlenecks should be done away with”.
Speaking directly to the Customs, the NDLEA boss said: “I think we should be allowed to do the needful. The Customs should be interested in taking the records which they can communicate to their command and not for them to take over what we discovered. Only from them after some weeks, sometimes a month before they return those items which will enable us to continue the investigation, but the issue would have gone stale or cold. They should allow us to do what we are supposed to do. This is greatly affecting our job”.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that on July 30, 2022, the NDLEA hurriedly announced that its personnel intercepted 2,750,000 tablets of Tramadol 225mg weighing 1,650 kilograms, with a street value of N1,375,000,000, at the Apapa seaport in Lagos.
According to the NDLEA, the consignments, which were packed in 55 cartons of Tapentadol and Carisoprodol types of Tramadol, were seized during the examination of a container, numbered: SUDU 7538656 on following credible intelligence.
Perhaps giving credence to the fears about delays, the Apapa Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service about five days later announced that, it has intercepted a 20ft container laden with 55 cartons of tramadol worth over N1.4 billion naira. It is the same drugs that the NDLEA had announced its seizures earlier.
Briefing newsmen on the same seizure earlier announced by the NDLEA, the Customs Controller of the Command; Comptroller Malanta Yusuf stated that each carton contained 50 rolls of 10 packs of the contraband with each pack also containing 10 sachets.
He said the content which was declared in the manifest as 272 cartons of stainless steel pot, were discovered when the container was positioned for examination on July 21, 2022, and it was discovered that it contained the said quantity of tramadol concealed in food flasks.
But, the NDLEA kicked at the practice of waiting for days before commencing investigations, he added that, by delaying the procedures the NCS is impeding its investigations.
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