Harboursandport.com: Lagos - A cartel comprising an illegal group known as Importers Association of Nigeria, IAN, and men of Area B of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF are constituting a clog in the cargo delivery process at the port.
Vanguard Maritime Report gathered both parties have been
operating for about a year now, targeting consignments heading for the popular
Alaba International market.
Investigation reveals that the illegal group’s function
is to identify targeted containers, block them and then inform the police who
then deployed armed officers to escort such consignments to their station.
Investigation revealed that officials from Area B of the
NPF are attempting to involve their colleagues from Area E with the recent
incident relating to a 40 footer consignment of electronics.
Report has it that a 40-foot container of electrical
goods duly cleared by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, the Standard
Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Port Police, etc, was last Friday accosted by the
group at First gate on its way to Alaba International Market.
A source close to the police said the container spent a
night at the station and that all its content were emptied before being
reloaded on Saturday at Area E.
Another source further disclosed that the consignee was
also made to foot the N40,000 bill for offloading and reloading of the
container.
Confirming the above to Vanguard Maritime Report, a group
who identified themselves as “Concerned Agents” explained that some of their
members were witnessed at the station during the examination.
The spokesman of the group, Friday Okoro, who spoke with
journalists in Lagos, explained that the painful thing is that the consignment
was duly existed from the port by the NCS after 100 per cent physical
examination was done in the presence of SON, Marine police, and all the other
government agencies involved in the examination of consignments.
Okoro, said when the truck was accosted by the illegal
term at First gate, the truck driver assumed that they were from SON, called
the consignee who in turn put a call to SON official that went to the scene.
He said on arrival, the SON officials were said to have
asked the men who used their sienna vehicle to block the truck to identify
their selves. The men responded that they were members of the taskforce of
Importers Association of Nigeria, IAN and that they suspect that the
consignment consists of substandard products.
Okoro further explained that the SON officials told the
men that they have cleared that consignment and asked the driver to drive off,
a directive that the driver obeyed.
He said at that point, the alleged IAN officials put a
call to men of Zone B, who in turn called officials of Zone E who came in a van
with heavily armed officials to stop the truck at Barracks stop and turn it
back heading towards Festac.
He said that at Alakeja Bus stop during the return
journey, the SON officials had requested that the container be taking to their
office at Ikeja since it is alleged to be containing substandard goods but
explained that the request was rejected by the police officers.
He pointed out that the importer had to pay for the extra
day demurrage, for the un-stuffing and re-stuffing of the container with some
of the products damaged by the rain that fell that day.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Area Commanders of the
two Zones proved
abortive.
However, a police source disclosed that it is the first
time the IAN men are dragging in officers from Zone E, noting that the Area
Commander had told the IAN men that until they provide him with authorisation
for their action he would respond to future calls from them.
On why officers and men from the zone responded in the
first place without such authorisation, the source said it is as a result of
the call from Zone B and the claim of alleged incrimination goods in the
consignment.
The source said that the quickly released that
consignment when it was discovered that the allegations were false.
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