CRFFN intervenes on Customs/freight forwarders face-off – as customs brokers abort strike action

Normal port operations and goods clearance procedures went on yesterday unhindered at the Lagos ports as the aggrieved freight forwarders who threatened to ground ports activities on Monday this week failed to carry out their threat.

A group of freight forwarders, who felt aggrieved by what they called the multiple Customs clearance procedures, had last week Thursday given the Customs authority a 72-hour ultimatum to reverse its draconian goods clearance policy or they would ground the operations at the ports from Monday.

But investigations by our correspondent at the Apapa port, Tincan Island ports, PTML and Kirikiri Lighter Terminal revealed that customs clearance procedures were going on without molestation from anyone.

However Tanko Ibrahim, the Vice-President of Western Zone of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders and one of the conveners of the concerned freight forwarders who called for the strike, told our correspondent that the strike action was shelved at the instance of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN).

“The CRFFN leadership has intervened in the matter. They said we should shelve the strike action to allow them meet with the Customs authority to resolve the matter.

“As the regulatory body which controls our operations as freight forwarders, we have to defer to their demand, hence the suspension of the planned strike action” Alhaji Ibrahim.

It would be recalled that some angry  freight  forwarders operating in the Western Zone have issued a 72- hour ultimatum to the Federal Government to call the Comptroller General of Customs, Col Hameed Ali to order and address the multiplication of Customs task forces at the ports.At a joint press briefing held in Apapa last week, various associations which included Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, lamented that the customs boss had allegedly deployed a team from Abuja to checkmate activities of the various commands.

The freight forwarders identified ten various units of customs constituting bottlenecks inside the port, some of them include; CG Strike force, compliance team, Federal Operations Unit, Monitoring,  Special Force, CG task force, information team, customs police, among others.

The freight forwarders had therefore issued a strike threat if the situation was not reversed within 72 hours.

© 2019, maritimemag. All rights reserved.