…Insists government, its agencies should take responsibility
Following the demands for waivers by freight forwarders as a result of the ongoing nationwide protest, the National Secretary of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders Nigeria, AREFFN, Ichie Frank Obiekezie has said that freight forwarders have genuine reasons to abstain from taking delivery and to ask for waiver.
Obiekezie who stated this in a chat with our correspondent in Lagos Tuesday, maintained that freight forwarders were not just asking for waiver for some days but for as long as the protest would last adding that they should not charge anything on any consignment that was in the port prior to the commencement of the protest.
He however, pointed out the shipping companies and the terminal operators who were insistent on charging demurrage for the number of days that the protest lasted should channel their claims to the government, as according to him, it was the government that caused this.
“The problem we have is that the authorities refused to do what they were supposed to do. When the warnings about this protest were being given, it lasted for almost three weeks, there are some proactive measures that government could have taken but it felt it would not work. Unfortunately, nobody wants to be a scapegoat.
“The best thing is don’t allow this thing to start because once it starts, you don’t blame anybody. Freight Forwarders have been at the receiving end of all these things. Even during the time of COVID 19, we were coming to work and you get there, you see freight forwarders clustered and nobody was asking how they were doing it.
“So, I don’t blame any freight forwarder, the government and its agencies should take responsibility for allowing this protest to take place and for allowing it to linger. Today (Tuesday) is the sixth day and it is still on and even taking new dimensions in some places.
“Yes, we thank God that in Lagos environment, it wasn’t as violent at it is now in other places but I can assure you that I wouldn’t have ask my boys to go and take out anything outside the port gate while this thing is going on.
“There’s a lot of things that go into freight forwarding, it’s not just walking in there and picking up your container. No! There are other stakeholders, so when such a thing happens, government should come in, in order to reduce the hardship again because if you insist that importers must pay to the last Kobo, what happens? More hardship”, he said.
Giving reasons for his position despite assurances from the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS of the availability of its men to work on the protest days, he said, “The fear of the miscreants attacking or vandalizing the consignment is one factor. The other one is the uncertainty that these promises being given on paper will be practicable from table to table to do this job because any table you don’t accomplish, that job stops. So, what’s the essence of taking the risk and the cost coming to the port?
“This is not the first time and it’s akin to saying that customs will be operating even at night, come and take your delivery. Freight forwarding and logistics doesn’t start and end at the port. You are talking about consignments imported by individuals worth millions. When an importer hands over his title documents to you, he has temporarily handed over the ownership of the consignments to you until you deliver and he signs off.
“So, if customs or other operators say that they will be open for business, consignees should come and take delivery, even under normal times, you bring out consignments here around 5, 6 or 7pm, from Tincan gate here to Mile 2, the number of miscreants that will accost you and what you are going to spend, it is not everybody that will take it not to talk of when there’s uncertainty.
“So, the simple answer to it is that freight forwarders, knowing what the situation has always been, will not go to risk consignment entrusted in their hands because purely it is a security matter. There was a time they said that trucks will not be moving unless at night. Is it working? Who gives them security those nights? From where to where?
“This customs that said that they are there, did you take inventory to make sure that they are all there in every seat? Because you may see the gate open, somebody will take transport from Ojota to here to come and do job and at this particular table, you will not see that officer and this SGD we run, if it gets to an officer, he will not do it until you come. If you come and he is not there, you are on your own. It may take one or two days when an officer is not on seat before the complaint from the agents will be heard by his superior. You cannot go to a table and said that officer, he didn’t come today, okay let us find alternative.
“What are people protesting for? Hunger and bad governance. If that freight forwarder goes to take a delivery, manages to secure a truck because nobody is talking now whether truckers will be available to go and rate their vehicles and he manages to do that and on getting to Cele, the goods and the truck are set ablaze, will customs pay the person? Will shipping companies pay the person? So, why are they talking like this?
“Our people have reasons and our reasons are genuine. We don’t provide our own transport, the transport owners are Nigerians, some of them have had bitter experiences in the past.”
On whether he would encourage freight forwarders to come forward to take delivery of their consignments now that the protests are dying down, he said, “Caution is the watchword because if you want to take a consignment from the port, you must find out where it is going, because it is now as if this protest appears to be localized but then, anything can still happen. So, if you want to take a consignment and you get a trucker, and you decide the destination, you may consider the safety along that route and take your consignment. The ultimate aim is to deliver safely.
“We keep encouraging our people because anyhow you look at it, the effects will linger until after 10th of August slated as the terminal date for the protest. That is if it ends by 10th August. The people are afraid, if anything happens to you, you are on your own.
“So, I will not force anybody to brave the odds. You have to review and as a freight forwarder, you have to get the consent of your importer, telling him the risks that are involved and if he gives a go ahead, you may need to get him to put it in writing. We don’t have insurance, we don’t have anything, no government protection. So, everybody is on his own.”
Photo: Ichie Frank Obiekezie, National Secretary, AREFFN.
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