Wharf Rats Resurface at Tin Can Port, Target Imported Lexus Vehicles
Clearing agents at the Tin Can Island Port have raised a fresh alarm over the resurgence of port vandals and cargo thieves commonly known as “wharf rats”, who are now systematically stripping imported vehicles, particularly high-end Lexus models, of expensive sensors, cameras, and vital components before owners can take delivery.
The alarm was sounded by Alhaji Sheriff Cisse, CEO of Amtiaco Global Ltd and Secretary of the Planning and Strategy Committee at the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tin Can Island chapter.
He identified Five Star Logistics Terminal, a Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo) vehicle terminal as the epicentre of the criminal activity, which he says also extends to associated facilities including Clarion Bonded Terminal and Classic Terminal, all operating under the Five Star umbrella.
Cisse fingered the management of Five Star and shipping line SALLAUM, particularly the Car Park C terminal manager and vessel crews, as bearing responsibility for the security failures enabling the theft.
“When clearing agents clear vehicles on behalf of their importers, expensive sensors and vital parts have already been removed by vandals inside the terminal,” he said.
Multiple agents corroborated the alarm with accounts of recent cases of vehicles delivered to importers already stripped of parts. One agent said a Lexus RX he delivered had been so thoroughly vandalised that his importer withheld his outstanding balance.
Another reported that the knob of his own RX 350 had been taken, while a third agent said he spent ₦700,000 replacing a stolen camera from a client’s Lexus after terminal officials told him the vehicle had been received from the ship in that condition.
Cisse catalogued a broader pattern of institutional failure at Five Star: poor security management both aboard vessels and within the terminal, inadequate staff, shortage of drivers to retrieve cars, and a culture of raising charges without improving service.
“All Five Star knows is to increase shipping and terminal charges. There is Lack of security management. Lack of terminal staff. Lack of drivers to pick cars. Stealing, damages and vandalising of goods inside the vessel and terminal”
“If Five Star management refuses to fish out the culprits, both inside the ship and inside the terminal, we are going to close down the terminal” he threatened
Meanwhile, our correspondent gathered that the fallout is already hitting the multimillion vehicle importation business, as agents say importers and shippers are now rerouting their vehicles to the Grimaldi Line and PTML terminal also at Tin Can Port, just so as to avoid the Tin Can exposure.
A reliable source informed our correspondent that the clearing agents in various online forums are now coordinating a march on the Five Star facility from next week, even as they are calling on colleagues to mobilise in full force.
