The 100 Percent Compliance Team of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has cried out again sharp practices of Maritime Police which have made over 1800 stuck at Lagos ports having been flagged down for investigation by the police division.
The National Coordinator, NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team, Alhaji Tanko Ibrahim told journalists after a peaceful protest in Apapa on Friday that the police division was conniving with shipping companies to get information of consignments and arbitrarily intercept cleared cargo.
Tanko stressed that the activities of Maritime Police are primarily geared towards extortion as freight agents and shippers part with a minimum of N1.5 million for each container flagged down by the police.
In his words: “At the moment, there are over 1800 containers trapped within the Western ports as a result of sharp practices of Maritime Police. For each container, Police collects N1.5million before releasing it and most times there is no reason for intercepting the containers in the first place.
“We wrote letters to the Police IG, and other stakeholders at the ports about this problem. We notified port stakeholders that this protest will happen two weeks ago and we followed-up with a reminder, but nobody engaged us for any meeting or dialogue. There are numerous issues but the major one is the Maritime Police. After freight forwarders clear containers from the ports, we are harassed on the roads by this police division. They seize the containers and take it to their barracks.”
He insisted that the Maritime Police connives with shipping companies as they also block the containers even before they are released by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), leading to additional demurrage and storage charges on the consignments.
“Their connivance is with shipping companies to extort monies from us, especially Lagos and Niger shipping company. We are also subjected to paying the demurrage that accrues from the delay while resolving any issue with the police. We aren’t against the Police carrying out any investigation on consignments if they insist it is their job; but we are no longer going to be held liable for the demurrage and additional charges during their investigations,” Tanko declared.
Tanko warned that the freight forwarding group is at the verge of dragging the matter to court, stressing that this may be the most effective way to address the issue if pleas, dialogue and protests fail.
“We recognize that ports are sensitive areas, that’s why we have been more open to dialogue and deliberations instead of protests,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, he noted that Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and AP Moller Terminal Apapa have called for an emergency meeting with the aggrieved freight agents over the issue on Monday, tomorrow.