NPA Call-up System: ANLCA Chairman At Tin Can Port; Akanni Mojeed Confirms System is Working

…Says “We Never Surrendered To Pay POF To CRFFN”

By DAPO OLAWUNI

The “Authentic” Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) at Tin Can Island Port Chapter, Alhaji Akanni Muhammed Mojeed has said that the newly introduced electronic call-up system for trucks by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is having positive effect on commercial activities at the Tin Can port.

Alhaji Mojeed also debunked reports by some impostors in the media that ANLCA has agreed to pay the controvertial Practitioners Operating Fee (POF) to the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) rather, he said the association is dragging CRFFN to court this week because POF is an illegal fee.

In a chat with DAILY TREND NEWS at the weekend, he commended the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman for the Electronic call-up system initiative, urging all stakeholders to put all hands on deck and support NPA to ensure the system works.

According to him, there are predictions from some stakeholders that the call-up system which is driven by an application known as Eto would fail at Tin Can Port due to the ongoing road construction. He however confirmed that the call-up system is working smoothly.

Speaking, he said “We have seen the effectiveness of the NPA Eto, if it continues likes this, it is going to work and be better”

“If you look at the issue of congestion at the port, usually the traffic congestion is caused by truck drivers before now. Some of the truck owners have about fifteen trucks each, but they dont have parking yards, they took over the roads as their parking space where they stay until they get another job, this has been a serious problem causing the traffic at the port”

“But with the current electronic call-up system and the Eto, without your TDO validation you cannot go and bring your truck into the port, automatically, those who do not have anything doing in the port cannot be queueing up along the access road”

“If not that the Mile 2-Tin Can Port road is yet to be completed, trucks would have been moving straight from Oshodi to Mile-2, straight to Tin Can Island Port without any issue under ten minutes”

The ANLCA Chairman advised NPA to monitor the system strictly and apply strick sanctions for airing truckers and hackers.

He said if NPA can monitor very well and not allow operators to disrupt the system, it is going to be a perfect system.

Continuing, Alhaji Mojeed said “The system is working, if you come to Tin Can Port, there is no more trucks on the road like we had before. They have all moved on to the parking lots that were provided for them.
Some people are saying that the call-up system is failing, but it is a lie, it cannot fail if all hands are on deck”

“There is nothing like bribery in the trucking business again, if you have 20 trucks, you can bring them all into the port provided you have the NPA Eto, no need to settle or bribe security agents before entering the port” he said

On the controversial Practitioners Operating Fee (POF), Alhaji Mojeed described it as an illegal fee.

He wondered why one of the members of ANLCA at Tin Can Port Chapter, Mr Ojo Akintoye would go to press and lie that ANLCA has agreed to pay the POF.

Alhaji Mojeed said stakeholders should disregard any statement coming from Mr Ojo as he is not the recognised chairman of ANLCA at Tin Can Chapter by the associations’ Board of Trustees (BOT)

Recall that Mojeed and his Tin Can Port executives last week held a meeting with the Commissioner of Police Western Ports, John Amadi, Registrar CRFFN, Barr Mike Nwakohu, Terminal Operators and other stakeholders in Apapa to trash the controversies surrounding POF

According to him, Mr Ojo allegedly gate-crashed the meeting as he was not recognised to attend it by the Commissioner, only for him to go to the media and report that freight forwarders have agreed to pay POF.

The ANLCA Chairman said “The POF is an illegal fee, we cannot be paying annual subscription to CRFFN, and you are still asking us to be paying money on each consignments coming out of the ports”

“If we allow them to scale through on this, they would introduce it and collect from all imported vehicles coming out of the port”

“At our meeting with the Commissioner of Police in Apapa last week, we told CRFFN to give us more time to consult our people, and that they should try to disseminate information to all other stakeholders”

“At the meeting, nobody agreed or accepted at the meeting with CP that we have agreed to pay the POF, the man saying that is just an impostor”

“By Monday, we are serving the CRFFN another court suit, we are not stopping there until the battle is won”

Alhaji Mojeed confirmed that the CRFFN are still collecting the POF at the port presently because the necessary tools to fight them is not yet available for the association.

“We don’t want to take laws into our own hands, this is why we are still watching them.
The POF does not concern ANLCA alone, it concerns everybody in the port.

“Because CRFFN do not have a regulated website and their system is not working, the CRFFN have subjected agents into paying the POF through a third party who collects far more than what freight forwarders are expected to pay”

The ANLCA Chairman lamented that the third-party collects N1,500 extra from freight forwarders before they can pay N2,000 POF.