ANLCA,  NAGAFF accuse TICT of extortion at Lagos Port

  
ABIOLA Seun       |         

Clearing agents  have raised alarm of alleged extortion by staff of TICT and called for automation of activities of the terminal operator.

Speaking to journalists on the development, the Secretary, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Tin Can Island Chapter, Mr. Emeka Nwosu stated that there had been series of complaints in the past by clearing agents over high level of extortion and cumbersome state of processing documents at TICT.

Nwosu informed that as a result of that, the leadership of ANLCA and NAGAFF met over the weekend and resolved to stop operation at the concessionaire billing and terminal Delivery Order office.

“So, we were here early, as early as 5.30am to 6.00am, we have already taken position here, stopping our members from going in to do any transaction with them. We are on ground, the team leaders of NAGAFF and ANLCA, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria and other members of the trade unions”, he said.

He accused staff of TICT of extorting money from freight forwarders before issuing them invoice and Terminal Delivery Order (TDO) even when such freight forwarders were not indebted to the terminal in anyway.

According to him,” Now, you don’t have access to even see the billing man, you have to pass your document to him through the security officer who will now collect a minimum of N1, 000 from you to pass your document in. 

“He has no business whatsoever with your document, he doesn’t understand what is in the document, even in the face of any issue that calls for clarification, he cannot defend it. Because he did not give you access to go in there and meet the billing Manager or whoever, he will now turn it to say that he said you should bring money to access the account which is an unacceptable practice.

“Saturdays, they are opening for business, when you come here on Saturdays to pick your invoice or to pay, knowing fully well that banks don’t work on Saturdays; they will now ask you to go and bring draft on Saturday, where do they expect agents to go and obtain the draft?

“Then that same payment that they don’t have draft for, when you tip them,  you will now be given a draft. Where does the draft emanate from? From the same system as a result of their set of bottlenecks created to extort these innocent freight forwarders,” he alleged.

Nwosu however asked TICT to introduce electronic billing system like its counterparts in Apapa, ” First, TICT should introduce electronic billing system like what APMT is doing. At APMT, you can access your payment from anywhere; you can even access your invoice from your phone. You can go to any Café and access your invoice, even pay online, take your receipt, apply for TDO, no money will exchange hands. There should be electronic billing system and payment method.

Speaking in the same vein, a chieftain of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Mr. Dele Iboma also made  further allegation of bribery against TICT. 

“We discovered that without parting with money, you cannot do any job here. A security man was caught this morning red handed for collecting bribe from an agent before action could be taken in processing his document. We caught him in the action and drew the attention of the CSO and the supervisor and they confronted him, the money was recovered from him and returned to the agents”.

“In addition to that, TICT is still operating manually instead of going electronic in the modern days of today. That is why this human contact is encouraging corruption. They don’t have POS machines, everything that is done here has to do with money and it encourages corruption”, he stated. 

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