The Zonal Coordinator, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), ACG Aminu Dahiru has called on the leadership of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) to turn the association into a pressure group in the nation’s maritime industry.
Dahiru who stated this in a chat with the leadership of NAGAFF recently in Lagos said that the association had all it takes to transform into pressure group that should focus attention on all aspects of the maritime sector in Nigeria including the Nigeria Customs Service so as to provide the needed environment for collective operation.
He disclosed that on his assumption of duty in the zone, he discovered that most of the documents brought before him for endorsement for clearance as overtime cargoes were not really overtime adding that most of the goods declared overtime were deliberately abandoned by their owners for selfish reasons.
“Is this overtime issue not deliberate? Are Customs officers doing what they are supposed to do? Are the agents there looking at their consignments, waiting for them to get into overtime so that it can be removed from the seaports to Ikorodu for him to document anyhow and get it? These are things that are militating against both customs, NAGAFF and the entire nation.
“And I tell you, I have conviction in me that you (NAGAFF) have what it takes to bring all these things in line. There is need for you to be a pressure group even if it is customs that is not getting it right, pressurize them to correct their wrong, shippers are there nit to talk of almighty APMT that is dealing with you as if you are nonentity and they are making their money. I am not trying to indict them but they are telling you that you are for them to make money from? Your job, you have not done, you are only there to extort them not to service them.
“Still on this pressure group, our terminals, they are meant to be less for the ports to avoid congestion and other unwarranted situations but I tell you that from the vantage position I have as an investigator, I have realized that applications for transfer…, I have come across a case where transfer was made but this consignment will never go close to that terminal and the worst thing is a situation where you see a consignment will all the lies, the declaration so far away from the reality.
“I cited this as an example, I have investigated a case where a container was found somewhere at Toyota but the bonded terminal it was meant for was at, I don’t know the location but I tell you the distance is far and the worst part of the story was that FOU intercepted the container and there was that order not to release, the following morning, the container was under detention, the officer released the container and I tell you, my conclusion to this is that it takes two to tango. But I thank God that as I am speaking to you, that officer has been invited for questioning”, he said.
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