NAGAFF Tin-Can Chapter boss markets CAC
… As agents complain bitterly against Area Command
Freight forwarding agents operating at the Tin-Can Island Port Complex have no reason to complain against the present administration of the Tin-Can Customs Command says Chairman of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) Tin-Can Chapter, Mr Uche Nwabude.
Nwabude, during a chat with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY last Thursday in his office, said that the present Customs Area Controller (CAC), Tin-Can Island Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Comptroller Taiwo Olanrewaju, has not only listened to but has also addressed the problems complained of by agents as hitches to the smooth and timely clearance of cargo from the port.
“Accessing the CAC is very easy. Since he came in we’ve had about five meetings especially on the issue of alert. Before now we receive multiple alerts but I can assure you that after our last stakeholders meeting with him this man has tried his best to resolve the issue. Multiple alerts has stopped, re-examination of containers at the gates has stopped, and now if you have a container you want to reroute just go and meet whoever is concerned and the job is done. He was also sent here to transform Tin-Can and you need to see what he is doing to sanitize Tin-Can as volatile as it is,” Nwabude told SHIPS & PORTS DAILY.
Even with this assertion by the NAGAFF Tin-Can Chapter Chairman, complaints are, however, still pouring in about the alleged unfriendliness of the command and the CAC’s inability to check the excesses of certain resident officers, who have being described by agents as tyrants and extortionists.
Singled out for her alleged overly discourteous and overbearing disposition towards agents is the Officer-in-Charge of Vehicle Seat, Tin-Can Second Gate, Deputy Comptroller Jayne Shoboiki.
Shoboiki is the female senior Customs officer alleged to have invaded the NAGAFF Headquarters, Freight Forwarders Village, Apapa, Lagos, on August 1, 2012, in the company of armed soldiers, threatening to kill the NAGAFF Founder, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam.
SHIPS & PORTS DAILY has received complaints from a number of agents operating at the Tin-Can Island Port about being allegedly victimised and extorted by Shoboiki, who they accused of being determined to make life difficult for them.
One of them, who pleaded anonymity, lamented that Shoboiki had allegedly made him pay an un-receipted N100,000.00 over the clearance of a particula car, putting him in a serious dilemma with the consignee.
The aggrieved agent said: “She is very devious! When you enter her office, she looks at your file and writes down something in code on a paper which she attaches file and orders you to take it to the Staff Officer. On reaching the Staff Officer, who after looking at my file and the attached note, demanded I pay N100,000.00! And when I asked what the N100,000.00 was for, he said he was just acting on the instruction of Madam- she who must be obeyed!”
Another of the complainants also narrated a near-similar experience with Shoboiki, when she was Officer-in-Charge of Vehicle Seat at Ports & Cargo Terminal, but claimed he took a bold step to confront Shoboiki who, according to him, allegedly walked him out of her office.
SHIPS & PORTS DAILY gathered that Shoboiki’s disposition toward threats of reporting her alleged misdeeds to her superiors is nonchalance, as it was alleged she routinely claims that she has Comptroller-General of Customs Dikko Inde Abdullahi “eating out” of her hands.
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