A former Chairman, Tin-Can Island Port Chapter, and current Western Zone Coordinator of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Prince Ozo Chukwurah, has accused the Customs-Police Joint Task Force of overzealousness in its recent raids for undesirable elements at the Tin-Can Island Port Complex (TCIPC), Apapa, Lagos.
Chukwurah, in a chat with SHIPS & PORTS DAILY, disapproved of the recent raids, during which the Customs-Police Joint Task Force arrested persons allegedly found loitering at the port, even when such persons identified themselves as registered members of accredited freight forwarding associations permitted to do business in the ports.
He said: “We agree that you should raid inside the ports, but then, right inside the port, you see somebody present his ID card and telling you that he is a member of NAGAFF (the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarder), a member of ANLCA, a member of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents – all government-approved registered associations, and you will not have any courtesy to look at this ID card to know whether they are okay, instead you throw it away and put the person inside the Black Maria van. It is wrong and condemnable! We are going to see the authorities and tell them that it could be that the people they sent are overstepping their bounds.”
The ANLCA chieftain also pointed out that, as long as there are offices situated within and around the ports, there will always be human influx into the ports.
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