Wharf Rats Allegedly Vandalize Nigerian Air Force Container At Tin Can Port

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Fresh indications have emerged that a container of vehicles belonging to the Nigerian Air force was allegedly vandalised and pilfered at Ports and Cargo Terminal at the Tin Can Island Port in Lagos.


Inside sources confirmed to DAILY TREND that apart from the Air Force container, vehicles are now being vandalized at the indigenous terminal, even as they alleged that there is a connivance among the staff of the terminal.


Speaking with our correspondent, Public Relations Officer of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) at Tin Can Island Port chapter, Mr Emmanuel Onyeme alleged that containers meant for off dock terminals are the most affected.
He said that most of the vehicles pilfered or vandalised are those at a stag called “Charlie” within the Port and Cargo Terminal.


Onyeme said “The wharf rats do not tamper with general cargoes, but anything vehicle inside the container is what they vandalize, and it is not possible for an outsider to just enter the terminal to identify containers with Vehicles. If it is an outsider job, they would have vandalised a general cargo container”

“And these atrocities are committed in only one stack called “Charlie”The wharf rats would either remove the whole key of the vehicle, the pressing buttons, other accessories including dashboard”


“One was a container being cleared by Nigerian Air Force, they vandalized the car, they are doing the vandalization on containers that are moving to bonded terminals.

When you see the container, you discover there is no seal, by the time open it, it has been vandalized”


Onyeme said that there is a form of collusion within staff of the terminal and the wharf rats. He said the security aspect at Ports and Cargo Terminal is very tight.


On the case of the Air Force containers, the terminal operator were said to invited the claims department and promised to bear the responsibility.

When DAILY TREND contacted the Corporate Affairs Manager of Sifax Group, operators of Ports and Cargo Terminal, Mr Muyiwa Akande said he was not aware of the Air Force vehicles vandalized within the terminal.


He however admitted that the company has had isolated cases of pilfering at the terminal on vehicles and that it is currently investigating the case to cub its reoccurrence.


He said “No matter the kind of technology or security system that we put in place, there would always be an exception, sometimes, technology fails”

“We have a CCTV in our terminal that gives us an overview of happenings around, this is to prevent such cases as this, so that anything happening around, we could have a good view of it, and almost everywhere in the terminal is covered by CCTV”


“But things will always happen, no matter the best system you put in place, isolated cases would occur”


“However, when we hear reports like this, we have a system to investigate just to find out exactly what the issues are.For any of our clients that suffers such situation, we have a way of compensating them if we established that their complaints are genuine”


“We also use these isolated cases to improve our security system. It is not a common occurrence, it is an isolated case.If there are staff that are culpable, we sanction them. If this is not done, we know the implication for our business”


“About a month ago, the company announced the appointment of a new Group CSO who would handle the security system all across our companies.We also program in place to train and retrain our security staff” he explained

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