…Says access control in our best interest
The Tincan Island Port command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that there was no iota of truth in the headline making the rounds on the social media yesterday alleging that its officers clashed with the officials of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) over port access control thereby damaging the port gate.
It will be recalled that officials of NPA at Tincan Island ports, on Tuesday denied access into the ports those who had no valid means of identification as well as those who did not show good course for seeking to gain access into the port, a development which took many port users by surprise.
However, in an interview with our correspondent in his office yesterday, the command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Uche Ejesieme noted that the alleged fracas only happened on the figment of imagination of the peddlers of that headline adding that the mere fact that there were little skirmishes does not necessarily mean there was a clash.
According to him, “You know when they started operation, gate control by NPA, sometimes, all the miscreants around will be trying to force their way inside and for officers, if you are coming, once you identify yourself, you pass. So, there is no issue at all. It surprises me that somebody will go to some of these platforms and start to insinuate what is not, that was why I said, first and foremost, go and assess where they alleged was damaged.
“What happened at that gate, from all intents and purposes, actually is not supposed to be newsworthy because it is something that is regular. When you start to apply any form of control, you see people struggling and sometimes, yes! It could be that an officer was passing when they were having that small commotion trying to control crowd but it was something that was resolved under two minutes, nobody went for any reprisal and it didn’t degenerate into any kind of pandemonium like some people are trying to insinuate on social media.
“Some of you have come and I told them to go and assess the gate to see whether it was damaged and repaired. It was just a little misunderstanding that didn’t amount to anything and was resolved under two to three minutes. Don’t forget that all the agencies are working together, ultimately for the same goal of serving government. The mere fact that there were little skirmishes should not give anybody the feeling to start to anticipate calamity or to start to feel that the agencies are not working together, no!
“What we had was that somebody was passing and they said bring ID card and he refuses to bring ID card but it did not degenerate into any kind of pandemonium, it was a normal misunderstanding which is normal in every family. So, there was actually no kind of altercation between customs and anybody, no!”
Asked whether the management of the Service at the command was opposed to the port access control initiative by the NPA, Ejesieme responded, “How can we oppose when we were saying that even the control is in our best interest? If you control, we will be able to, don’t forget that we have our CPC, which is a delicate place and that is the engine room of the command. If we don’t control crowd, how do we operate here? Is it now right to allow all manners of criminals and miscreants masquerading as agents to go and be operating around the port axis?
“It is a well thought out intention by NPA. Don’t forget that I said earlier that when you are introducing this kind of policy, you are bound to have initial pioneering challenges because a lot of people hanging around here will always sometimes want to force their way in and you don’t expect security agencies to fold their arms.”
On whether the Service at the command level as carried along before the introduction of the exercise, he stated, “Yes! We have security meeting every now and then, in fact, the last one; it was DC Enforcement that represented custom at the security meeting. You know, whatever they do, is always to the knowledge of all agencies because they put up a circular so that everybody is carried along in whatever they are doing.
“Yes in particular reference to the issue, access control, what the Controller suggested going forward was that for that kind of control, it is also important to involve customs at that operational level so that it will create a more seamless approach to gate control. But for us as officers, gate control is actually in our best interest because of the nature of what we do. If you try to make this place an all comers affair, it will actually breed criminality to the system which will not be good.”
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