The Chairman, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tincan 2, Ijora, Mr. Olufemi Olabanji has said that contrary to reports in some sections of the media, the eleven containers dropped at the gate to the terminal are not carrying arms and ammunitions.
Olabanji who made this clarification in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos said that the containers which are eleven in number were moved from Apapa port to the area by rail with the intent that the owner could evacuated them by road from that end.
He informed that the owner of the containers had commenced evacuation of the containers as four out of the eleven containers had been taken adding that they were not abandoned as was reported.
According to him,”These containers you are seeing outside, to my knowledge, they were picked from Apapa to Lillypond but the containers are fast track containers. The owner paid his money to move them from Apapa through rail so that there will be free flow of traffic so that he can pick them from this place. The containers are not carrying arms and ammunitions.
“The containers did not come into Tincan 2 and the owner is picking the containers from where dropped them, they are not containers meant for Lillypond”.
He observed that the reason why they raised alarm and questioned the dropping of the containers at the terminal gate was because they (agents) had more than 100 containers on Transit Bill of Lading (TBL) from Apapa to the terminal which the terminal operator failed to transfer to Lillypond on the excuse that the road was bad while agents kept paying demurrage running into millions of naira every day.
“Even if they are going to increase the transfer charge, we don’t mind, we want the containers to leave Apapa to this terminal so that the owners can take delivery of their containers instead of paying demurrage to the terminal and shipping.
“So, that was why we got annoyed and said that it was not acceptable to us and we started talking to the press about it. But to me as a chairman, I don’t believe there is ammunitions in there, although I don’t know what is inside the containers but what I believe os that there is no reason why they will bring containers from Apapa and it is carrying ammunitions and drop them here.
“Our problem is that they have to bring our containers because of the money the importers are paying. They said we should go and market this place, we have gone so far to market the place to our friends, to our importers and they have been shipping their containers through Apapa, transit them to Lillypond and when it gets to Apapa, it takes two months, sometimes a month before they can bring them to Lillypond and we start paying demurrage. So, people are not happy with what is happening at Lillypond”, he said.
On why the containers were left at the gate rather than bringing them into the terminal, he said,”The containers were left at the gate because the containers are not for Tincan 2 command and if they bring them inside the terminal, they have to go through a lot of processes. There is no manifest that will back them up, there is no transfer document that will back them up, so if they bring them into the terminal, there will be problem for the controller, they will even ask him why he accepted those containers into the terminal and I thank God our controller did not accept such because he knows the right thing to do”.
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