The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Tincan Island Chapter has cried out to the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other statutory regulatory government agencies responsible for regulating the activities of the terminal operators at the nation’s seaports to save them from the excesses of the management of the Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) in Lagos.
The Vice Chairman of the chapter, Barr. Mrs. Ada Akpunonu who made this call in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos stated that TICT management had taken over virtually all the foreign services from all the shipping lines known at the Tican Island Ports even when it did not have the capacity to do so.
Akpunonu noted that entry into the terminal to load consignments was a tedious task just as exiting the terminal after loading was a more herculean task saying that the development had added to the lock jam being noticed at the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway particularly from the First Gate even as she described it as a serious problem.
“So, there is the need for the Shippers’ Council even the NPA and people who have the statutory function of regulating the activities of some of these terminal operators to wade into this matter because we are crying.
“But unfortunately, you see, TICT thinks that they are smart going to all these mushroom associations, that somebody that has just a gathering will form a little group of people just in one area to come out here to talk about TICT when you don’t even involve in clearing. These people are forwarders, most of them are not customs brokers but we as customs brokers are dealing daily with the customs and importers. We are not transporters, so we are wearing the shoes and we know where it hurts.
“TICT is a major problem, something has to be done because, then you talk about the issue of revalidation, not even conceding the problems they have caused and are still causing in this sector, they start their revalidation by 12 midnight which is only obtainable at TICT. Every other terminal is 12 mid day but theirs is 12 midnight. Tell me where you are to load that night because they have a problem, getting in there to put in your truck on line, it takes you a day, sometimes two days for your truck to get into the terminal because they are biting more than they can chew and they are smiling home with lots and lots of money because whatever happens in the line of business, the liability is solely yours”, she said.
She decried the attitude of the white men who are in-charge of the terminal who according to her are racists adding,” I don’t know how to describe their own because they have boasted that they won’t have time to sit with blacks and talk with blacks but he is here smiling home with the money he collects fraudulently from the blacks”.
She added,” How long would we watch and see these people kill our economy? How long are we going to watch these people destroy what the government is trying to build up? This is change, we need change and you see these people, I think that they had people in the previous government who they could go and compromise at the top which they have always boasted of.
“But now that there is a change in government, we talk about change and we hope that this government is actually going to be positive about this change. The way out of it is that government has to stamp its feet on the ground to recoup all these money, to get back all these money that they had defrauded”.
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