The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Apapa Area Command and freight forwarders’ associations have disagreed sharply over the operations of the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU).
The Area Controller, Mr Charles Edike, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that the agents misunderstood the directive of the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Mr Dikko Abdullahi, on the CIU.
“The agents protested that the CIU should not operate in the port, but they actually misunderstood the CGC’s directive over the operations of the CIU.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Apapa Area Command and freight forwarders’ associations have disagreed sharply over the operations of the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU).
The Area Controller, Mr Charles Edike, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos that the agents misunderstood the directive of the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Mr Dikko Abdullahi, on the CIU.
“The agents protested that the CIU should not operate in the port, but they actually misunderstood the CGC’s directive over the operations of the CIU.
“The CGC had instructed that the CIU operatives should work from outside the terminal. He said that they could witness and participate in cargo examination.
“He also made it clear that after examination, the CIU operatives should return to their offices outside the port and that they must not issue release to anyone under any guise,” he said.
Edike said that the agents however took it to mean that the CIU operatives should not be involved in cargo examination.
He said that the command would frown at any reported attempt by any officer to ask for personal gratification, but that it would not shy away from its duty.
He said that a debit note would be issued to anyone who deserved to make additional payment as required by the current Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR).
NAN reports that the associations’ representatives had earlier protested to show their concern over the activities of CIU at Apapa Port.
Dr Fred Ajuzie, the Chairman, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) told NAN that they protested the CIU’s interference in cargo clearance.
He said that the CIU operatives used the Federal Operation Unit (FOU) to hunt the agents when they could not intimidate their members.
“The protest is about the overzealous attitude of the CIU toward cargo clearance. We know that CIU are not about cargo clearance, but they are now interfering with the cargo clearance.
“They are passing information to FOU to stop and harass our people. They do not come for just the examination, but they are now informants, taking pictures of containers that do not concern them.’’
Ajuzie said that the associations would not tolerate the attitude of the CIU operatives again.
Mr Dom Onyeka, the Vice-Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Apapa, urged customs to intervene and release containers that had been officially released but confiscated by CIU.
Onyeka said that the activities of CIU officials had resulted into the payment of unnecessary demurrage by agents.
“We protest to stop the arrests of containers that have been released and officially exited from the port. And this is caused by the CIU.
“They record containers and send them to other agencies. So, as containers leave here officially, they are stopped on the way by federal operations or police and taken to their base.
“Besides the CIU problem, we want to address the issue of the letter written by the CG because it is ambiguous.
“You cannot ask somebody not to be in a place and still ask the person to be physically present and participate in the examination. We want it to be corrected,” Onyeka said.
He also urged the customs to extend the use of provisional release to enable them clear their goods and save agents from paying demurrage.
Mr Ibrahim Tanko, a representative of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, said that their greatest challenge was with the Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR).
He said that they had applied for the PAAR in the last two weeks but had not yet been cleared for processing.
“The PAAR we applied for has not been coming out and this is not the best for our businesses. When we complained, we were asked to go to Abuja.”
NAN reports that when the Nigeria Customs Service took over service provision at the ports in December 2013, it allowed the use of provisional release for the processing of cargo clearance.
NCS had said that after a second extension of provisional release to Feb. 17, all cargo clearance process must be through the PAAR.
It said that the provisional release was a temporary measure to clear up the backlog of clearance requests in order to avoid congestion at the ports.
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