The new Assistant Inspector General of Police, in charge of Maritime, Muhammad Musa Katsina, mni has demanded for the continued support of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) in curbing the activities of criminally-minded people in the maritime sector.
AIG Katsina made this plea when the management of NAGAFF paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Lagos, South West Nigeria.
The AIG said one sure way of assisting the Police was in the area of responsible partnership, with a view to “nipping in the bud” all activities that could pose security threat to lives and properties in the maritime sector.
The Police Chief said he had made enquires about NAGAFF and was happy with the various testimonies of people about the association adding that he was delighted to discover that the association would be a dependable ally in the task of ridding the maritime sector of every form of crime that were
injurious to the interest of the country.
According to AIG Katsina the visit by the NAGAFF management was timely and assured the association of the appreciation of its efforts in making the sector competitive, crime free and friendly.
The AIG Maritime reiterated that the Police Command had a general function as enshrined in Section 4 of the Police Act.
He named some of the maritime related crimes as robbery, piracy, kidnapping, smuggling and
called for strategic partnership to tackle these menace.
The AIG Katsina therefore made a case for a regular joint meeting between his command and NAGAFF to share ideas on how to solve the problems associated with all forms of criminality in the Nigerian seaports.
On his part, the leader of the NAGAFF delegation, who is also the Chairman Board of Trustees (BoT), Chidiebere Enelamah thanked the AIG for the warm reception accorded his team, and assured of the continuous support of his association to the Police formation.
The NAGAFF BoT Chairman said the association was fully committed to supporting the government and its agencies in realizing its mandate.
Enelamah informed the Police Chief of the efforts of NAGAFF in expanding the frontiers of freight forwarding in terms of geographical territory, age, social class and professionalism. He said through the singular efforts of the association, over one thousand Northern youths were now gainfully engaged in the business of total logistics and supply chain, thereby helping in its own small way the efforts of the Government to reduce crime rate by creating employment in the country.
In the area of capacity building, he said NAGAFF cannot be found wanting as the association once had an Academy that had produced great scholars in the industry, while it was currently running some programmes with the Redeemers University of Nigeria, where practitioners were being trained at
various levels to acquire knowledge on how to function effectively as total logistics managers and Customs related matters.
In the opinion of NAGAFF, one thing came out clearly from our visit when AIG Muhammad Musa Katsina sighted Section 4 of the Police Act under general duty; it signaled that the era of rule of law was now or never.
Accordingly freight agents were advised to be compliant to import regulations or have themself to blame.
The NAGAFF delegation comprised of members of the National Executive Committee and the Board of Trustee members while the Commissioner of Police at the Maritime Police Command Headquarters CP. Adegbuyi was also on ground to receive the delegation.
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