A chieftain of the International Freight Forwarders Associations (IFFA); Mr. Jonathan Owoh, has blamed poverty as one of the major reasons there is an increase in the importation of over-aged vehicles into the country.
Owoh, who said this last week in a chat with Shipping Position Daily at Ports & Terminal Multipurpose Limited (PTML), Lagos also said that people are struggling so hard in the country to ensure that ends meet.
Owoh, who is also National Provost of the IFFA argued that it will be very difficult to enforce the age limit on imported vehicles as the country does not manufacture any vehicle, adding that an ordinary man wants to drive a car.
“Most of these over age vehicles you see coming into the country is as result of poverty; there is hunger in the land. So people are trying to do one or two things to ensure that ends meet that is just the thing”
“We don’t manufacture vehicles and you are talking of people buying vehicles below 10 years, an ordinary man wants to drive a vehicle; that is the issue, an ordinary man on the street cannot afford to buy any vehicle below 10 years”, he stated.
Owoh, nevertheless urged the government to ensure proper enforcement of the law, even as he expressed fear that it will be difficult to properly enforce the laws with the high level of poverty in the country.
“The government should try as much as possible to enforce the law, because if the law is not strictly enforced, obviously there will be a deliberate violation of the law, though it may be difficult to be properly enforced because of the level of poverty in the country”, he added.
He urged the government to ensure that there are adequate security agencies at the various border posts and even the ports to ensure proper enforcement of the policies.
“The government should ensure that we have sufficient security agencies and to ensure that the policies of the government are well enforced, else it will be continue to occur” he concluded.
Discussion about this post