•Customs may cooperate

By Godfrey Bivbere

Maritime stakeholders have called on the management of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, to take the operatives of its Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A, away from the port access roads in Lagos.

Making the call at a sensitisation meeting between the members of the presidential committee on the clearance of the port access roads and truckers in Lagos, stakeholders noted that activities of the Customs unit will be a set back to the efforts of the committee.

They are of the opinion that the unit has several points where officers stop container-laden trucks duly cleared from the port and demand for clearance document for re-check.

Recall that stakeholders have been calling for the removal of officers of the unit from the port access road alleging extortion of importers and truckers, alleging that failure of the victims to cooperate usually leads to confiscation of the consignments.

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Reacting to the claims of the stakeholders, officer in charge of enforcement at Tin-Can Command of the Customs, Deputy Controller Dera Nnadi, who was at the meeting, said there is a need for officers on patrol around the port to be careful in their operations.

In his words, “One other contentious issue is the ability for Customs officers to have a mobile patrol on the road but it will be optimized in such a way that they don’t block the access roads particularly close to the port areas.

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“I will also recommend that since it is a presidential directive, we should obey what they have said about those officers streamlining their operations from the period this exercise is going to last as we are going to support it,” he concluded.