Stakeholders sue for constant stakeholders meeting with Customs

Tayo Oladipupo

As a new Controller takes over at the Apapa command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) in Apapa have called on the Service to revert to its monthly stakeholders meeting at the command.

The Apapa chapter Chairman of ANLCA, Mr Dom Onyeka speaking on behalf of his members, made the appeal while speaking with journalists in his office in Lagos at the weekend.

He said members of his association at the chapter had a lot of agitations but had no avenue to express them.

Recall that the command on Friday promoted the former Controller of the command Abubakar Bashir to the post of Assistant Comptroller General of Customs over his refusal to collect a large sum of money as bribe presented to him by importers of some illicit items recently.

Comptroller Abba Kura of Zone A Post Clearance Audit has since replaced him as the new Controller of the command while Abubakar Bashir has been redeployed to the headquarter of the Service in Abuja.

Onyeka however posited that the stakeholders meeting would address most of the challenges of the freight forwarders in the command.

His words, “What we are looking at is for us to be having constant stakeholders’ meetings because for long during the administration of the outgoing ACC, we have not been having stakeholders meetings.

“Among our members, a lot of things are agitating our minds and because there is no room to discuss it, sometimes you go and confront the officer and it becomes personal.

“But if it is at such forum, everybody will hear and take caution and it will be addressed there. So, my thinking is that we need to have constant meetings among ourselves so that the pains we carry home can be addressed because many of us are going through serious pains.

Speaking further, Onyeka sued for caution in handling the introduction of registration fee by the Nigerian Shippers Council saying the purpose and benefit of such fees to the general public must first be enquired before actions are taken.

While calling on importers to eschew the threat of abandoning the Nigerian Ports for neighbouring countries ports because of the fee, he added that there are some inherent dangers in patronising such ports.

“I believe sincerely on dialogue. You don’t just abandon something because somebody made a statement. My own take will be that we need to engage the authority because if you say they do this, you want to go and patronize other, the dangers are there.

“Is it Cotonou port you want to go and patronize? The dangers of bad roads, pilfering and others are there.

“This is our nation; we cannot run away from it for anybody’s sake. My take is that we need to engage them and ask the benefits. Is it only the government that will benefit or for the general public?

“If the benefit is for all by and large, it is good but if it is going to be for few individuals, we will resist it”, he stated.