The new Customs Area Controller in charge of Apapa command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Abubakar Bashir has threatened to arrest about 1,000 clearing agents and freight forwarders who according to him, have failed to pay for assessment and utilisation of their Pre-Arrival Accessment Report (PAAR)
Comptroller Bashir stated this at his inaugural stakeholders meeting held at the command in Lagos yesterday.
He said that 1000 PAAR is currently unused at the Apapa command; he said the situation is akin to the clearing agent and their importers refusing to pick their cargoes from the port.
Abubakar also described the unused PAAR as an economic sabotage. He urged the agents to go and regularise their documents, warning that once they are clamped down, the company would not be able to carry any cargo in any port all over Nigeria.
The Customs boss, while reacting to series of complaints about activities of other government agencies said that the customs cannot act on delays coming from terminal operators and other government agencies. He said that customs does not have power over them.
He told the clearing agents that: "At the command, we have over 1000 unutilized PAAR, if you know your company is among them or you are clearing for an organization that has any of such PAAR and unpaid assessment, please go and check your records because I am going to act"
"When I was controller PCA, when you have an unutilized PAAR, I don't invite you because you know about it already, what I do is to block you, this means that your company would not be able to carry any cargo in any port all over Nigeria"
"If you don't act after this, I am going to seal- up your company and arrest whoever I want to arrest because it amounts to economic sabotage".
The customs boss noted that many of the affected agents have one issue or the other with either shipping companies or the terminal operators and this is why they have not been able to pick their cargo.
The Comptroller warned that any cargo that is left in the port after 28 days have become an overtime cargo, and that usually, the customs write to the court to condemn the cargo and have power over the cargo legally.
Also speaking at the meeting, Apapa Chapter Chairman of Association of Nigeria License Customs Agents (ANLCA) Mr. Olumide Fakanlu urged customs to improve on its time management and cargo delivery. He argued that when time is wasted, agents lose money.
Also speaking, a stakeholder and representative of Bollore Group, Mr Bright Idowu raised concern on multiple hold on containers by various government agencies, especially the Nigeria Police.
"At the end of the day, it would be discovered that there is nothing wrong with the container; Police Apapa, Police marina, NDLEA, SON among others are responsible for this", he alleged.
Chairman of Apapa chapter of National Council of Managing Director of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA) Mr. Enwelu Chukwuemeka lamented that the cost of cargo handling in Apapa port has been on the high side compared to other ports. He also said that customs officers are being over-burdened.
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