Anxiety As Customs Introduce Video Recording of Cargo Examinations At Port

By DAPO OLAWUNI

There was palpable tension at the Tin Can Island Port Lagos on Thursday as clearing agents clashed with the officials of Nigeria Customs Service under the “Customs Police” unit.

The Customs Police is an arm of of Nigeria Customs Service, charged with responsibilities of policing the various customs formations, to checkmate conduct of officers and as well as stakeholders.

DAILY TREND NEWS gathered reliably that the Customs had issued a memo, instructing that henceforth, all cargo examinations must be videoed and forwarded to the Deputy Comptroller in charge of Revenue through the Deputy Comptroller in charge of Sheds and Terminals before release is effected.

Our correspondent learnt that on the strength of this memo, the customs police officials stormed TICT Terminal, one of the terminals, but were met with resistance by the clearing agents.

According to one of the agents, Comrade Samson Abolaji, the memo was allegedly issued by the Deputy Comptroller Revenue without notifying the Assistant Comptroller and Deputy Comptroller in charge of the TICT terminal.

Eye witnesses confirmed that the fracas would have turned bloody as one of the customs police official pulled out his gun.

“None of the clearing agents were arrested, neither was any of the officers attacked” he said

Public Relations Officer of the Customs command, Mr Uche Ejesieme in a reaction to enquiries by our correspondent said the clearing agents acted in violation of section 11 of the Customs Act when they tried to obstruct officers from carrying out their functions.

According to him, Nigeria customs service as a lead agency at the ports has all the powers under Section 145 and 158 of the Customs and Excise Management Act cap c45 law of federation of Nigeria 2004 as amended.

“We were totally taken aback at the conduct of some of the stakeholders to the extent of obstructing our officers from carrying out their legitimate functions:

“Again, that was a clear violation of section 11 of the extant act, expressly defined.
It is not an attempt to frustrate anyone particularly our highly esteemed compliant authorised operators”

“And so, we condenm in its entirety the attitude of those persons that tried to resort to self help instead of ventilating their frustrations through the appropriate channel.

“However,as soon as the information filtered to the customs area controller,Compt MBA Musa, he quickly directed the DC Enforcement to the terminal for an on-the-spot assessment.

“We expect that a comprehensive incident report will be sent to the CAC for his further action.

“On the issue of taking pictures, I don’t think that we have the obligation of letting you know how we intend to go about our functions.

“However, photographs are only taken when a consignment needs to be re-examined probably as a result of an additional information.

“But generally speaking, it is even in the best interest of agents to take photographs at examination bay as it will help as evidential proof in the event of any dispute arising from nature or status of cargo.

“Above all, compliance remains the only panacea for cessation of unnecessary furore in the trade value chain.

“We are still battling with the issue of non compliance and customs cannot afford to fold its arms and allow unpatriotic persons to carry on with reckless abandon” Ejesieme stated