The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has appealed to the new Area Commander of the Area B Police Command, Lagos to curb the incessant interception of duly cleared and released cargoes from the Apapa Port by men and officers of his command.
The National Deputy President of NAGAFF, Barr Fred Akokhia made this appeal in a speech to welcome the new Area Commander who paid a courtesy visit on the association’s headquarters in Lagos Wednesday.
Akokhia disclosed that there have been instances where the association had complained about the challenges their members pass through in the hands of the officers and men of the command in the discharge of their legitimate duties which at the end of the day proved unwarranted.
He noted that the act was more worrisome when the police was part of the team that partook in the examination of most of those consignments at the ports wondering why another set of policemen would intercept those goods for no reason.
According to him,” we have had instances where we had to complain about the difficulties some of our members were going through in the hands of the officers of your area especially when containers that are legally and duly exited from the port are held by the Area Command here and in most cases, at the end of the day, we found that there was absolutely no reason for that to have happened”.
“This matter came to a point we had to when Galzani Lawal was the AIG (Assistant Inspector General) Zone 2, we took this matter up to him and he made us realize that there was no reason why the police should intercept the container that has legally exited from the ports more so as the policemen were part of the examination team that exited the container from the port only for them to exit within a kilometer or half a kilometer, another set of policemen will arrest them for no reason”, Akokhia said.
The NAGAFF chieftain reminded the Police boss that time was of essence in their job, the reason they have to ensure a timely delivery of their jobs to their clients in order not to lose those clients saying that frequent interception of cargoes especially when there was no need for that was not healthy for their business.
He therefore asked the Commander to ensure his men exercise some little level of discretion in the discharge of their duties pledging the cooperation of NAGAFF to enable him to succeed in his new assignment.
Responding, the new Area Commander, Area B, Lagos, Assistant Commission Of Police Ndu Anene stated that the interception as complained about although may be abused in most cases by his men was in the best interest of the nation and her citizens.
ACP. Anene who was formerly the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Apapa Port recalled that even though the police is part of the team that examines containers at the ports, there are still instances where for one reason or the other, those containers would not be examined at all or in the case where they are examined, would not be properly examine before exiting the port.
“Yes! There are policemen who should be part of the examination but you and I know that we also know that with my little sojourn in the ports, I came to internalize some terminologies like cutting of seal and we all know that cutting of seal simply means that your container was not examined or even when you cut the seal, you pretend that it has been so examined”.
“In most cases also, we come across a term called concealment where you have one thing and you said you have another.
Sometimes, we get worried and we want to look into it. It is the government that has been shortchanged. We are all government agencies and they pay our salaries and if you deny them the revenue that they were supposed to get from the ports, payment of our salaries, provision of working equipment will be a little hard”.
“So it is for the sake of the people. To make sure that we are all safe , that is why we sometimes pay attention to what it is that comes in, apart from whether the government gets the required revenue that they are supposed to get and to make sure that dangerous and harmful things were not brought in”, Anene said.
He however assured that under his watch, policemen would not unnecessarily molest innocent persons doing their businesses even as he gave out his cards to the members of the association present during the visit telling them to contact him and make their complains when they are unduly molested by his men.
He promised that if in the course of discharging their duties, it was discovered that they had been misled into unnecessarily delaying a genuine trader from carrying out his business, that they would not only release the container to him in order for him to go, but that they would have to apologize to the person for the delay caused.
Earlier in his speech, the founder of NAGAFF, Dr. Boniface Aniebonam who described the visit as a re-union as well as homecoming for the Area Commander revealed that the Police boss was a founding member of the association having been a DPO of Apapa port during its formative years.
Dr. Aniebonam who pledged the support of the association to the new Area Commander observed that there was no other way they could help the police boss to succeed than to give him some intelligent tips as the police can only succeed in their job with information.
“We have also tried to restrict ourselves to the rules of engagement as far as the law is concerned. It is for us to keep the law. That is the only way to help you and then be able to give some intelligent tips where there is the need because police can only work with intelligent information”, he remarked.
He therefore counseled members of the association to go about their normal business conducting their businesses in a compliant manner adding that it was only in that way would they be able to escape arrest from the police whose duty it is to enforce the law.
