The 100 Percent Compliance Team of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has alleged illegal activities by some officers and men of the Police operating in and around the Lagos ports.
This is even as it alleged that the Marine Police inhibit the fast clearance of containers by sending letters (alerts) to shipping companies and terminals asking them not to release containers that usually have undergone the statutory processes by the Nigerian Customs Service and other government approved agencies in the ports.
In an official letter written to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) which was signed by the National Coordinator of the Team, Alhaji Tanko Ibrahim, it noted that these activities have caused undue delays, demurrages, double payment to the shipping companies and terminal operators, thereby occasioning heavy financial burden and extreme hardship to its teeming members.
Alhaji Tanko stressed that consequently, the activities of the maritime Police had made freight forwarders to engage shipping companies and terminal operators with a threat of industrial action. He added that the terminal operators were then prevailed upon not to accept letters from the police to block containers.
In the petition, NAGAFF alleged that, the Police personnel “do not only block the release of containers from shipping companies, they also arrest and detain containers on the roads, and even allegedly go into fisticuffs with the officers of the Federal operations Unit of the Nigerian Customs service.
“We have the Nigerian police in the port headed by a commissioner of Police, yet the Maritime Police go about frustrating the ease of doing business in the ports by arresting containers belonging to our members on the roads, directing them to their offices where allegedly huge sums of money are extorted from them.
“If we may ask rhetorically, and respectfully sir, is the maritime police a revenue generating agency of the government? Assuming there are alleged infractions on the side of our members, the most appropriate thing to do is for the attention of the designated port Police to be drawn, or other government agencies. What actually are the maritime police looking for?”
“We are taken aback that our members who endeavor to do the right things are being punished with unnecessary interference, intimidation and needless arrest and detention. Most freight forwarders have been taken out of business while some others have died in health related challenges as a result of these excruciating and asphyxiating activities of the maritime police”, he wondered.
Tanko however urged the Inspector General of Police to call the Police personnel to order and save the ports from imminent restiveness that may paralyze business activities and further cause economic loss to government.
He added that they may have no option than to go on a protest which may result in a possible shutdown of the seaports.
“We therefore, respectfully urge you sir, to call the Maritime Police to order and save the ports from an imminent restiveness that may paralyze business activities and further cause economic loss to government revenue. We may have no option than to go on protest which may result in a possible shutdown of the seaports”, he stated.
