Recently, the new Commissioner of Police in charge of Ports Authourity Command, Mr Hillary Okeke hinted that anti–terrorist anti – bomb squad of the Police would be deployed to the nations’ seaports.
He seized the opportunity of a visit to the headquarters of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) to drop a hint of what is likely to happen in a few weeks.
The only reason that was given by the Police chief was that the introduction of these Special Forces would aid security in the ports. He never –the- less justified the deployment as necessitated by the global trend of producing any intending attacks through the seaports by the dreaded Al Qaeda group.
And coincidentally, his chief host who is also the chairman, board of trustees of NAGAFF, Dr Boniface Aniebonam had a few days to the commissioner’s visit raised alarm about the activities of Policemen who often stop and extort money from owners and freight forwarders of already cleared containers; all in the name of security. He also told his visitor that the petition against the Police had already been forwarded to the Inspector General of Police.
On a very serious note, no nation can avoid to toil with its security, most importantly at the seaports and especially since the infamous 9/11 attack on the USA. We recall that it was that development that led to the introduction of the International Ships and Ports Security (ISPS) code and also affirm that the nation’s seaports have not only experienced some level of security, but the pre-concession human traffic into and out of the ports have greatly reduced.
Prior to port concession, the seaports are usually a beehive of activities as all manner of people ranging from food vendors to hawkers, employed and unemployed dockworkers, artisans drivers, motor boys, apprentice clearing agents, thieves and women of easy virtues all trooped in on daily basis.
While port concession brought some degree of sanity into the port system, the ISPS code made port administrations to be more security conscious, as restrictions were introduced.
The Nigerian port system has come a long way especially when issues of security are concerned. There was time when the ports had military port commandants; there was also a time when all military arms had operations offices in the ports. There was also a time when military men were in charge of port operations. Thanks to democracy, all that is gone as we no longer have such apparatuses in the ports.
The ports have now been concessioned to different private terminal operators and this has also brought up some level of decency in ports operations.
Without mincing words, one can not boldly say that cargo clearance is at its best; the system is still fraught with some degree of circumvention and cutting corners as demonstrated by the level of under declarations and concealments that operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service discover on daily basis. But an arm of the Customs; that is the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) is already well- positioned to intercept all such fraudulently cleared containers.
It is therefore not the duty of Policemen to stop containers that have been duly cleared by relevant apparatuses of government in the ports. The sooner that the Police hierarchy calls its personnel to order the better for the nation’s economy; because it is the economy that suffers when such illegal interventions are made by bodies not created for that purpose.
Having stated the above, we will like to caution that as much as we are in support of all efforts that the government can put in place to ensure that the nation’s seaports are well secured, there is a very high tendency for the anti – bomb and anti-terrorism operatives to become a clog in the wheel of smooth cargo clearance in the ports.
We recall how difficult it has been to stop Policemen in the ports from interfering with the normal port operations; especially cargo examination and clearance. At a stage, there were different commands, divisions and units of the Police in the ports, all claiming to be representing different interests but claiming to be working to achieve the same goal. Up till today, port users still hear of formations like ‘DPO’s Unit’, ‘Area Commander’s Unit’, ‘Police CID’, ‘Police Anti –Theft’ and so on in he ports; all clogging the cargo delivery process.
With the way things work in this country, it may not take tool long before the anti-bomb and anti-terrorism operatives become another ‘duty collecting bank’.
Discussion about this post