The office of the chairman, Presidential committee on port reforms has received a barrage of petitions over alleged extortion by men of the Port Authourity Command of the Nigeria Police. The petitions were reportedly sent to the chairman, Prof Sylvester Monye by licensed customs agents.
Sources confirmed to our correspondent yesterday that some freight forwarders had earlier complained to their national secretariats about the alleged extortion.
The office of the chairman, Presidential committee on port reforms has received a barrage of petitions over alleged extortion by men of the Port Authourity Command of the Nigeria Police. The petitions were reportedly sent to the chairman, Prof Sylvester Monye by licensed customs agents.
Sources confirmed to our correspondent yesterday that some freight forwarders had earlier complained to their national secretariats about the alleged extortion.
Some copies of the petitions that were sighted by Shipping Position Daily specifically fingered police officers at the RoRo port division as well as the Area Command, Western port as most guilty of the allegations.
In one of such petitions that were written through the Tin Can Island Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), the clearing agents specifically accused the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of massive extortion and negating the spirit of 48-hour cargo delivery in the ports.
Accusing the DPO (names withheld), the agents alleged that, “she stops, diverts and forcefully hijacks cargoes that have already been exited by the Nigeria Customs. Through this means, she extorts huge amount of money from our members ranging from N100, 000 to N200, 000 before the cargoes are released”.
In the petition, the agents also disclosed that they had brought the DPO’s activities to the attention of the port manager; Tin Can port, but lamented that, “he seems helpless”.
This petition was dated August 30, 2012.
Prior to the above, the Apapa port chapter of the same association had also alleged that port Police are still insisting on performing examination in defiance of new guidelines on cargo delivery.
The agents also accused one assistant commissioner of Police of being the mastermind of the practice by writing to shipping companies not to release containers until the Police say so.
The agents, in the petition alleged that the assistant commissioner “wants Police to perform cargo examination/inspection with or without Customs before delivery could be effected. He even went further that cargo released by Customs can be examined by the Police before being delivered by terminal operators”.
Shipping Position Daily correspondent was shown two copies of letters that were written to two shipping companies, namely; CMA CGM Delmas and Maersk Line in which the office of the Area Commander , Western Port; Assistant Commissioner of Police B. Abudullahi instructed the two shipping lines not to release 19 containers, “pending clearance from this office”.
An officer from the command whose telephone numbers were on the two letters confirmed to our correspondent via the telephone that the letters were actually delivered to the shipping companies by him.
Shipping Position Daily also confirmed that the originating petitions from the clearing agents associations have been forwarded to the Presidency, precisely to the office of the Presidential committee on port reform.
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