Group of persons numbering over fifty suspected to be licensed customs agents recently stopped the campaign train of the Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and Presidential aspirant, Mr. Emenike Nwokeoji from addressing members of the association at a campaign rally at the PTML chapter over customs refusal to give them access to the port.
Nwokeoji whose campaign train had earlier the same day visited the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal, Comptroller Lami Wushishi on familiarization visit but could not make it to visit the ANLCA members in KLT chapter who were waiting to receive him due to traffic issues arrived PTML for campaign when the group struck.
Hardly did the team settle down to the day’s business when commotion erupted with the angry group majorly young men and women besieged the venue venting their anger so that every effort made at calming them down failed to yield any positive result to the extent that the policemen at the scene seemed incapacitated to arrest the situation.
Speaking to the newsmen, one of the protesters who would not want his name in print accused the chapter Chairman, Elder Oluwole Obe of conniving with the customs authority at the command to institute the use of access card by the agents to access the port even as he recalled that the previous Chairman vehemently refused to give in to the move earlier on.
He posited that even in a case where they succeeded in getting the access card, the card within a space of three months to six months will expire thereby leaving them to start all over again.
He queried the need of the campaign in the chapter when the leadership of the association in the chapter had failed them even as he called on the chapter Chairman to resign for a more vibrant leader to emerge.
However, when all efforts to get the group to allow the campaign to go on, including the promise of an amount of money to assuage them failed, Nwokeoji and his team had to call off the campaign and made for the office of the Customs Area Controller of the command.
During an audience with the Controller, Mr. Emenike raised the issue of the access denial before the Controller and asked that the issue be addressed to enable the agents to carry on with their duties.
“My people are complaining and I feel you have to do something about it. I don’t know, access, people as we were coming here, they blocked us, that they are not allowed access to the port”, Nwokeoji pleaded.
Responding, the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Modupe Aremu explained that access to the port as far as PTML command is concerned is granted to only those who are licensed and registered to work in PTML and who have Form C30 without which one cannot be allowed to operate at the port.
“If you are licensed with your Form C30, I think they give seven people per license. We need to minimize access, all over the world, in modern ports, you won’t find anybody in the ports, you can make declarations from the comfort of your office, that is paperless customs.
“Very soon, our scanners are coming and our scanners will work, we need to minimize human contact, it’s going to make our work easy. If you make your declarations in an honest and transparent manner, you don’t even need to move from table to table. PTML is a compliant port, in PTML, if your declaration is in tandem with what you have, you can clear your goods in less than six hours and in 24 hours you take your containers”, she said.
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