The National Association of Government Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has criticized the Secretary, Tin Can Island Port Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Chuks Davis Kanikwu, for defending the Deputy Controller in charge of Tin Can Island Port Terminal B, Mrs. Jane Shoboike.
Kanikwu had told SHIPS & PORTS DAILY recently that the accusations of highhandedness and extortion levelled against the customs officer was spurious.
But the Public Relations Officer of NAGAFF Tin Can Chapter, Chief Patrick Ofoegbu, said that the allegations against Shoboike were factual and a huge source of problem for agents operating at the port.
He expressed disappointment in what he described as Kanikwu’s “sudden devotion” to Shoboike.
He said: “I read about Kanikwu saying that there is no problem with officer in charge of Vehicle Seat (Terminal B) in Tin Can. How can a stakeholder like him say that? How then is he defending his people, a Secretary like him? This same Kanikwu was in a meeting where people complained so much about the problems they were having with the DC Terminal B. Is she the only DC in Tin Can?
“I was in a stakeholders meeting where the chapter executives of ANLCA were also present and an issue of a demand of N250,000 by this officer for a vehicle that was having just few pieces of used batteries and a generator set that were not declared because they could be passed for personal effects was raised. These items were not in commercial quantity but their complaint was that this woman insisted on collecting N250,000. It was said that the consignment stayed in the port for one week accumulating demurrages. This is something she could have applied human face and released. The same Kanikwu was there at the meeting but did not put a defence for her then, why the sudden devotion?” he asked.
Ofoegbu said that “for Kanikwu to get up and say that there is no problem with DC Terminal B shows that he is looking for favours from her.”
“The person in question is not the only DC in the terminal so how come Kanikwu is speaking for her alone. There other DCs there. How come he spoke specially about her? If Kanikwu is looking from any favour from her, let him come from another angle and not to use the demise of other agents to seek favour,” the NAGAFF Tin Can spokesman further stated.
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