FRESH CRISES HIT TIN CAN PORT

• Aggrieved Agents Protest At TICT Over Two Customs Officers

The notoriety of Tin Can Island Port as the alleged hotbed of crises and unwholesome practices again came to the fore yesterday at two different terminals and autonomous commands of the Nigeria Customs Service, where aggrieved licensed customs agents almost lost two of their own. At another part of the expansive complex, another set of licensed customs agents paralysed activities for the greater part of the day.

• Aggrieved Agents Protest At TICT Over Two Customs Officers

Two licensed customs agents slumped yesterday at the premises of the Port and Terminal Multiservices Limited (PTML), allegedly as a result of suffocation at the overcrowded and poorly ventilated hall where gate passes are being issued to them to effect the final release of their consignments from the Customs.

The chairman of the PTML chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Prince Bola Adeniran who confirmed the near tragedy also told our correspondent that one member of his association died last week from suffocation at the same hall after he slumped and was rushed to the hospital.

He gave the identity of the deceased ANLCA member as Adesina Olatunji.

He alleged that the hall in which agents are being attended to is terribly suffocating, with no air conditioner and no proper ventilation and that several complaints for the hall to be made conducive have been turned down by the appropriate authourities.

The development also coincided with another protest by clearing agents at Tin Can Island port over alleged high handedness of two Customs officers at the command.

The protest paralysed operational activities at the Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) for hours over what the clearing agents described as oppression on the part of two top customs officers.
The licensed customs agents called for the removal of the two customs officers, namely; Deputy Comptroller Buhari and Deputy Comptroller Jane Shoboiki, because of their alleged highhandedness.
Crying aloud, they appealed to the Command’s area controller; Mr Zakari Jubril to ensure that the two officers are removed from their current duty posts.
Shipping Position Daily also gathered that operational activities at TICT have been sketchy since on Monday 3rd June 2013, due to the alleged unacceptable attitude of the two customs officers operating at the terminal.
But, the timely intervention of the Customs Area Controller of Tin Can Island Command at about 3 00 pm at the TICT terminal helped to save the day as he appealed to the irate clearing agents to go back to work and continue with their various operational activities.
The CAC, appealed to the surging crowd that, “we are on top of the issue and I beg you all to go back to your work, go back to your work”.
Meanwhile the Chairman, Tin Can Chapter of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Sir Fill Nwabude told Shipping Position Daily that "what we are experiencing at TICT is an internal crisis and I can assure that we are on top of the matter and very soon everything will be fine because we met with the CAC, he heard all our complaints and appealed to us that we should give him time and don't also forget that he was newly posted to this command".
According to him, "you don't expect the CAC to perform magic, but I assure you that we will soon get over it soon."
"We are not the one to post the customs officers to this place and we do not have the power to remove them as well, though we have power to complain if they are not doing things right, but like I said the CAC is on top of the matter", he stressed.