By Esther Onyegbula

An Indian businessman based in Lagos, Satiya Prabhu Lal has dragged a Nigerian shipping company, Maerskline, to the police, alleging that his container with goods worth over $120,891 with bill of landing was fraudulently moved out of Apapa port and auctioned without notifying him.

He further alleged that the company continued to extort millions of naira from him even after they auctioned the container with goods to another auctioneer in Abuja.

But when contacted on phone, a source at Maerskline, who identified simply as Gbenga told our reporter: “The Indian business man abandoned his container for 10 months and at the expiration of the period, Customs auctioned it through another auctioneer in Abuja.

“What we did was to simply hand over the items to the auctioneer after we got the customs papers. “The business man should face Customs not our company. When police came into the case, we graciously offered to refund him the money he paid for the demurrage to the tune of N3 million but he refused to accept it. Rather, he continued to boast that he will destroy the name of the company in newspapers and online. Our legal team is handling the case.”

The businessman who petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Operations at the Maritime Command, Force Headquarters Annex, Lagos, alleged that in the month of February, 2024, he brought in 1/20 feet container into Nigeria with No. MSKU-7934545 valued at $120,891 with bill of lading No. 233042669 at the Apapa Port, Lagos and engaged the services of LATEPO Nigeria Enterprises to clear the container.

According him, he paid N3,167,350 as demurrage to Maerskline through his agent in person of Mr. Adeyemi Isaac and later, a delivery order was issued by the company to release the container but it was discovered that the said container was placed on hold. He was told to pay additional charges of N104,597 to revalidate the delivery order.

“After the payment of the additional charges the second delivery order was issued to him on November 22, 2024, unknown to the complainant, another delivery order was issued to one auctioneer on November 19, 2024, by the same Maerskline shipping company.”

“Finally, when the complainant got to Apapa Port on November 23, 2024, a day after he received the delivery order, he discovered that the container had been moved out of the port to unknown destination.”

A police report made available to reporters stated that after detectives conducted investigations into the complaint, it was revealed that the container shipped from India and arrived Nigeria by KSS Syntex Private Limited through Maerskline shipping company to Apapa Port, Lagos but after all necessary payments and documentations by the Indian business man, the container was nowhere to be seen and the shipping company could not give satisfactory account of the whereabouts of the container.

The report said investigations later revealed that the container was auctioneered by the custom auction office in Abuja and allocated to another auctioneer. 

Investigation also discovered that the custom auction office in Abuja communicated to the shipping company on  October 31, 2024, after the container was auctioned. 

Detectives discovered also that despite custom auction letter, the shipping company concealed the information and deliberately refused to inform the Indian business man and continued to receive payments for demurrage worth millions from the businessman and at the same time issued a releasing order to him.