The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has given an account of how a phone call by the Comptroller General of Customs, Dr Dikko Inde Abdullahi saved the management of the Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) of the proposed picketing by the members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tincan Island Chapter yesterday.
It will be recalled that NAGAFF had last Thursday issued a press release warning its members to dissociate themselves from the planned picketing and withdrawal of service citing inability of ANLCA to exhaust all avenues of dialogue with the sole aim of letting the management of the TICT to know of their grievances.
A source who spoke to Primetime Reporters at the NAGAFF Headquarters on the condition of anonymity on Monday stated that early Monday morning, members of ANLCA went ahead with their strike mobilizing their members to shut down the TICT.
According to the Source,” While doing that early in the morning, intelligent information through the CIU (Customs Intelligence Unit) got to Abuja and we were told that the CG (Comptroller-General) called the Area Controller and told him to call those people to order and the Area Controller had to invite all of them and pleaded with them not to go on with it, that it is not the best way of welcoming Mr. President who is resuming work for the first time today (Monday). It does not show good signal more so as they called customs agents, that it will not go down well for the customs before the new administration. That means that customs is not aware of this agitation and why did they allow them to go on with it”.
“So, the need for them not to go on was discussed at the office of the CAC of Tincan while that of SCOA went ahead because SCOA was some miles away from Tincan and there, they shut down business and by the time you go down there, you make one or two investigations, you will discover that terminal people are complaining, agents are complaining because they were not properly briefed, port users were complaining because they were not equally served with notice”.
On why NAGAFF was not part of the picketing, the source said, “NAGAFF pulled out because from this picketing because there was an official directive from the NAGAFF Headquarters not to participate in anything that has to do with the withdrawal of service or strike action because we believed that Nigerians were still trying to recover from the economic hardship inflicted upon them by the oil marketers and the Apapa gridlock that has not helped matters over time and coupled with the fact that things are naturally difficult and we experience less cargo throughput”.
“And again, this is a new administration that has just taken over power last Friday. So, there is no need going through this, they need to exhaust all avenues of negotiations, dialogue and consultations rather than subjecting people, taking them unawares, ambushing other port users not to do their jobs because they were not adequately served the notice of the withdrawal of service”.
The source continued,” The operational issues in Tincan has been there over four or five years ago. They are being addressed on phase basis”.
But in a swift reaction, the Secretary of ANLCA, Tincan Island Ports Chapter, Evang. Chuks David Kanikwu dismissed the alleged intervention of the Comptroller-General of Customs over the proposed picketing of TICT describing it as false.
Kanikwu explained that there were three authorities that were guiding their actions in the ports, the first being the Port Manager who he said could intervene through the Ports Security Officer (PSO), the Commissioner of Police and the Customs Area Controller (CAC) since the ports are known as customs ports.
“Number one, you know the Port Manager can intervene through the PSO and ask all of us to come to a meeting in his office which is the normal rule of engagement, we are not going to picket people because you want to shut them completely”.
“What happened is that when the people that are in-charge of control of security in the ports midwife on the issue, we have to respect them by listening to them until the communication breaks down”.
“Now, after the call by the Port Manager, the Commissioner of Police got interested, she invited all of us to her office at Marina. Then the Shippers’ Council got up to say they will hold a meeting with us and TICT. You see, so when all these people are involved in trying to intervene, will you continue to shut down a place? That is common sense”.
He continued,” Now, the CAC, it is a customs port, the CA in his own wisdom aligned himself with the calls by these people and asked us that since this is like this, we should please maintain peace until the various discussions are concluded. So, that is the issue, it is not that Dikko gave a fiat that we should stop the action. Dikko is not a member of the association”.
The ANLCA Scribe however said that the picketing was successful since they had gotten a reply from the presidency on those issues they raised.
