Business Activities Paralysed As Tin Can Customs Controller’s Daughter Weds in Kebbi State

Business activities at the Tin Can Island Port were paralysed from last Thursday up to the weekend as many customs officers travelled to Kebbi State to attend the Customs Area Controller, Yussuf Bashir daughter's wedding.
Port stakeholders, especially shippers and clearing agents who spoke with our Shipping Position Daily described the situation as unfortunate. They lamented that documents that required officers’ signatures piled-up, while the importer would end up paying huge demurrages.
One of our correspondents who visited the Customs Processing Centre (CPC) on Friday reported that most of the officers were not on seat and clearing agents and freight forwarders were seen loitering and waiting endlessly.
Areas affected by the development were; the releasing desk, vehicle seats, general cargo seats, the entire CPC and the gate. The only two senior officers on ground were the Asycuda Project Manager acting as CAC and the Deputy Controller Enforcement.
Apart from these, many officers of the command were said to have travelled, thereby making cargoes that should have been released to acquire huge demurrage.
One of the agents who is an ANLCA member but who pleaded anonymity confirmed that "There were lots of side effect in every department at the port, at the gate, it is only one officer that is signing jobs, the two senior officers are not there. At the scanning too, most of the senior officers are not there to scan containers"
 "The situation is the same at the general cargo and vehicle seats. As I am talking to you, the vehicle seat of Ports and Cargo has been suffering before now, because one of the officers went for Hajj"
"Thursday before Sallah, clearing agents suffered so much, only one officer was on vehicle seat to release jobs. In the process, something went wrong with his password and there was nothing that could be done, a lot of people paid demurrage. The job was released after the holidays" He said
"The people that are acting right now are the APM as Controller, and DC Enforcement is also around. The CPC suffered last week, the area used to be filled up with cars, but on Thursday and Friday it was very empty"
Also speaking with our correspondent, a member of NAGAFF confirmed that the CAC daughter wedding affected businesses as cargoes could not be released.
"It was at the long room (CPC) that most of the officers travelled, some of the terminals were working, it was because the CPC was not working that made activities to be paralysed" he said.