The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has urged the newly appointed area Controller, Apapa command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Muhammed Abba Kura to revive the command’s monthly stakeholders meeting.
Chairman of ANLCA, Apapa Chapter, Dom Onyeka, who made the appeal while speaking with journalists in Lagos on Monday, said members of his association at the chapter had a lot of agitations but had no avenue to express them.
Onyeka said the stakeholders’ meeting would address most of the challenges the clearing agents in the command are facing.
One of the challenges faced by the agents he said is multiplicity of customs unit at the command.
He said, “What we are looking at is for us to be having constant stakeholders’ meetings because for long during the administration of the outgoing Area Controller, we have not been having stakeholders meetings. Among our members, a lot of things are agitating our minds and because there is no room to discuss it, sometimes you go and confront the officer and it becomes personal.
“For example, we have the problem of multiplication of customs duty in the port. We have resident customs officers collecting duty at the port. All around the port, we have the strike force, FOU and another team from Abuja. So there is need for us to address all these divisions we have in customs. If those at the port are not competent, they should remove them and bring the ones outside to replace them.
“It is at such forum where everybody will be present that this kind of issue can be addressed there. So, my thinking is that we need to have constant meetings among ourselves so that the pains we carry home can be addressed because many of us are going through serious pains.”
Comptroller Abba Kura was redeployed from the Customs Post Clearance Audit, Zone A and has since assumed duty at the command.