The Port and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) has extended the implementation date for its electronic port pass which is being issued to stakeholders to gain access into the terminal, especially into the examination bay.
The Port and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) has extended the implementation date for its electronic port pass which is being issued to stakeholders to gain access into the terminal, especially into the examination bay.
Shipping Position Daily gathered that the concessionaire was forced to extend implementation date because some freight forwarders had disturbed the effective take-off of the scheme when it started last week. The freight forwarders were reported to have locked up the entrance into the examination bay last week and had insisted that the scheme would not take effect.
Speaking with our correspondent at the terminal on Tuesday, former chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) at the PTML chapter, Mr. Oginni Lewis reported that the agents had approached the management of the PTML and that the Group Managing Director of the company had been forced to extend the effective implementation by three months.
Oginni however condemned the attitude of the agents who locked up the terminal’s examination bay, saying that the company had given enough time for everyone to register for the identity card, hence no need for the action.
“It is the fault of agents because they had notified us since December last year and they gave us six months to prepare ourselves, but agents always take everything for granted, that day we got there and met that the gate was locked, we went to Grimaldi office and met with the GMD, we pleaded with him that they should extend it for us to get enough time to prepare ourselves and they agreed with us”
“The electronic identification card is supposed to start operating by June 2013, and they had started on 1st of July, but it has been extended by three months before full implementation, they are still allowing people to go in for now, but if you don’t have your Bill of Laden and your company identity card, you will not be given reflective jacket to enter the examination bay” he said.
Also speaking with our correspondent, the image maker for the PTML command of the Nigeria Custom Service, Mr. Steve Okonmah commended the management of the terminal for coming up with the electronic port pass which according to him is a good measure to check illegalities at the examination bay and the marketing side.
Okonmah stressed that the scheme will check the influx of crowd from entering the examination bays, but that it does not stop them from entering into the port.
“If you have mission here you can come to the port, but you cannot get to the examination bay if you don’t have the card, even as a custom officer, if you don’t have anything doing there you cannot go into the examination bay.
It ensures security, when you are doing examination you will be sure that you are dealing with a genuine person, secondly it discourages the crowd that usually come to loiter at the port without having anything to do. The same goes for the marketing side, if you are entering the place you must have reason to be there”, he explained.
He recounted previous experiences where miscreants come into the port environment and sit around without having anything to do at the examination bay and the marketing area of the terminal.
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