Port concessionaire; Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) has accused the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service; Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi Inde of attempting to illegally move about 155 containers from its terminal and without due process.
Terminal Manager of TICT, Mr. Richard Akinbosotu made this disclosure last week Wednesday at a meeting with the Nigerian Shippers’ Council in Lagos.
Port concessionaire; Tin Can Island Container Terminal (TICT) has accused the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service; Alhaji Dikko Abdullahi Inde of attempting to illegally move about 155 containers from its terminal and without due process.
Terminal Manager of TICT, Mr. Richard Akinbosotu made this disclosure last week Wednesday at a meeting with the Nigerian Shippers’ Council in Lagos.
Akinbosotu accuse the customs of conniving with some high profile importers to evade rents accruable to the terminal under the guise of transferring the containers to Ikorodu.
In this particular case, he said that TICT had sought a court injunction to stop the Customs CG from transferring the containers which according to him, belonged to five importers.
According to him, some of the cargoes which are purportedly being transferred to Ikorodu usually find their way back to the warehouses of their owners who had previously abandoned them at the terminals.
Akinbosotu specifically said that, "at the moment we have an issue at hand; 155 containers, a letter came from CG that these containers should be transferred to Ikorodu, but when we checked the containers, they belonged to five shippers, and they wanted the containers to move to Ikorodu but we say No, so we got a court injunction".
"Agents usually connive with government agencies and try to avoid payment of rents, they will pay the Custom duty and before you know it, there will be a letter from Customs that the container must move to Ikorodu, meanwhile it is going to the owner, without the terminal getting what belongs to it" he alleged.
Akinbosotu fingered the Nigeria Customs as one of the numerous government agencies trying to frustrate the smooth flow of operations at the port.
According to him, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as well as the Nigerian Police are also part of the government agencies that frustrate the 48 hours cargo clearance process.
He revealed that sometimes, these agencies usually pick up TICT staff and threaten to detain them for releasing a particular consignment of interest.
"We know there are security implications but it is not all cargoes that are having security implications"
"When a container leaves the port, the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) will pick the same container and take it back to the terminal, it will stay for about two weeks or months, and eventually when they release it, they will ask you to waive, whereas we have paid NPA what is due to them on each container, even on rents", he stated further.
"Many times we receive notice from even the EFCC asking us to stop a cargo from leaving the terminal, after two weeks, they release the cargo without any reason, the same thing from Alagbon Police and so on, even sometimes they threaten to detain some of my staff" he said
Continuing, Akinbosotu pointed out that: "If the agencies are having problems with the shipper, there is bound to be delays and the rent on cargoes will increase, but somebody will come from nowhere and ask you to waive, you want to punish me for an offense I did not commit?, he asked.
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