Following the recent claim by the Controller, Apapa Area one Command of the Nigeria Customs Service , Comptroller Charles Edike, that the command stemmed 40,000 containers to off dock terminals nationwide, the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal(KLT) chapter of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has faulted the claims.
Following the recent claim by the Controller, Apapa Area one Command of the Nigeria Customs Service , Comptroller Charles Edike, that the command stemmed 40,000 containers to off dock terminals nationwide, the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal(KLT) chapter of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has faulted the claims.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily, Chairman of the chapter; Mr. Aloy Anokuru said that with the support and encouragement of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigeria Customs Service, transfer of containers to off-dock terminals will be achieved.
Disagreeing sharply, he said :"The controller cannot say he transferred 40,000 containers to off dock terminals because there is nothing to show for it at KLT"
" May be out of those transferred 40,000 containers, KLT might collect some number of containers, but in my own opinion I will say there is nothing to show for it at our end".
He urged the Apapa customs command to check its record properly, noting that the figure did not correspond with what is obtainable at the off dock facilities.
"In our last meeting with the Apapa customs, we talked about stemming of containers to off dock terminals and I know customs can assist ,NPA can help us to stem vessels to KLT , unless they want this place to die and we are not praying for that because this is our farm land and we need to fertilise it"
"All we are saying is for government to stem vessels for us here, not even containers, because if they stem vessels here, it means that the whole containers will be taken to this place"
He further appealed to the government and the customs to help revive the KLT, stressing that the terminal is near collapse and the freight forwarders are suffering.
The ANLCA chairman reiterated that low transfer of containers to KLT and other off dock terminals nationwide is the major challenges faced by agents operating at the off dock terminals.
"I don't want to say we do not get containers at KLT because we see KLT as an off dock terminal, but there is nothing to buttress his point because the place is still empty", he stated.
But the Public Relations Officer, KLT command of customs, Mr. Amadi Ndidi confirmed to our correspondent that some containers were stemmed to KLT, but he could not ascertain the figure as at press time.
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