· Stakeholders laud Port Task Team
Findings by Shipping Position Daily have revealed that various ‘intervention’ units of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) that were drafted to Lagos Port access road, may have vacated the illegal checkpoints.
This is even as industry stakeholders have lauded the efforts of the Port Standing Task Team (PSTT) in clearing the ports corridor of illegal checkpoints that were inhibiting trade facilitation.
Recall that the National Coordinator, PSTT, Mr Moses Fadipe, in a recent meeting in Lagos had lamented that some of the more than 75 extortion points which were earlier dismantled along the port corridor are beginning to return gradually.
According to Fadipe, the task team has however vowed to resume its onslaught against the extortion points, some of which were mounted by the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Police as well as hoodlums from various Local Government Areas around the port.
Our correspondent who took a surveillance tour along the Oshodi-Apapa expressway observed that men of the Customs Intervention Units which include the Customs Strike Force, FOU and Customs Police have fled their usual checkpoints.
The over 20 Customs Checkpoints around Ijesha, Second Rainbow, Mile 2 and the Tin Can Port Access road had been deserted creating a free flow of outbound trucks from the Tin Can Port.
Speaking with our correspondent last week, the National Coordinator, 100 percent Compliance Team of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, Alhaji Tanko Ibrahim confirmed that there are no longer illegal checkpoints mounted by Customs officers.
Clearing Agents Lament Role Of ‘Camp Boys’ On Lagos Port Access Road
Tanko however added that these personnel no longer station themselves at the checkpoints, but rove around and stopping containers for additional examination and checks.
Tanko also informed that the management of the NCS has recently released several circulars to bar these intervention units from raising multiple alerts on consignment which had been cleared from the port, adding that all alerts should be channelled to the Deputy Controller in Charge of Revenue.
“They (Customs officers) are still working, but they are not positioning themselves in one place. In the last petition when they were instructed not to stay around Area ‘B’ Police and other junctions. So they have decided to go up and down; moving around. That is why they are called ‘roving’. They are no longer staying in a particular place.
“Based on the complaints I made in the last three weeks about the issue of alerts, the Customs released a circular yesterday (Tuesday) that all alerts should go back to Abuja. Another circular was released today again stating that all alerts should be channelled to DC Revenue. We are working seriously on this issue”, Tanko said.
On his part, the Administrative Secretary of the Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) Mr. Bala Muhammed noted that the PSTT have been able to significantly dislodge illegal checkpoints mounted by both uniformed and non-uniformed personnel along the port access road.
Bala however stressed that the extortionists have migrated from the outbound section of the port access road to the inbound section collecting money from trucks that are coming to the ports.
While commending the Port Standing Task Team on their efforts, the AMATO official called on the team to extend their operations to the inbound section of the port access roads to eradicate these checkpoints apart from the essential ones for security and traffic.
“We may still have some of them around. Sometimes, when the PSTT operates, the informants of the extortion bandits can easily let them know that the Task Team is coming for them and they vacate the checkpoints. But when the PSTT are done with their operations, they will return to their activities.
“We want the PSTT to look into this so that there will be no extortion checkpoints apart from the essential ones for security and traffic. All other checkpoints should be demolished and collapsed. It is an aberration to lay ambush for trucks that have been cleared from the ports. Unfortunately, truckers are the victims of these Customs aberrations. We don’t know what is inside these consignments because we were not present during examinations.
Reacting to allegations that some Customs personnel still have their checkpoints at Ijora, Bala said, “may be the PSTT is not aware and will still have to revisit the place. On the out-bound lane of the port access road, no checkpoint is allowed. No uniformed or non-uniformed personnel or civilians are allowed to operate a checkpoint. This is just to ensure the free flow of cleared consignment from the ports down to their destinations”.
Also speaking, the Apapa Secretary of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Humphrey Okwuosa confirmed that the Customs personnel are no longer at their usual checkpoints due to the road construction, adding that they are still present at Ijora.
Okwuosa also alleged that instead of mounting checkpoints, Customs intervention units now raise multiple alerts on consignments cleared at the ports. He also said some of these Customs units are not predictable, adding that they also operate at night.
“They may not be along Tin port road due to the road construction. They are in some other places like when you are going to Lagos Island they are there. If you are coming from Apapa going to Ojuelegba, once you are descending from Ijora climbing the bridge, you will see them there sometimes. Their work is not purely official work, because a lot has been written concerning it. What they do now is by placing alerts on people’s jobs in the port which is contrary to what their work is. We are working against it. There is a new directive that they should stop all these internal alerts that contravene the policy of trade facilitation. They are still there.
“You cannot predict them, but most of them come out at night. Some of them come in the afternoon, do two to three hours, then go and come back at night” Okwuosa alleged.
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