Customs brokers kick as Tin Can port buckles under cargo build up

By ZION Olalekan |

A fresh wave of congestion may have hit the Tin Can Island Port especially at Five Star Logistics Terminal as vessels laden with cargo are said to be stranded in a desperate bid to discharge their consignment.

This is even as the Tin Can Island Port Chapter of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has alleged that some terminals do not have adequate equipment to handle the imported cargoes.

Speaking with our correspondent at the port yesterday, Chairman of the chapter, Segun Oduntan said the association has directed its members not to pay any terminal operator that fails to position containers on time for examination.

Oduntan was speaking after a closed door meeting between the national leadership of ANLCA with the Customs Area Controller of Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Compt Musa Baba Abdulahi.

On the port congestion at the port, Oduntan said “The terminal owners, we are on their neck, about two or three of them, we are on their neck as per this issue, and we believe they are going to sort the problem out soon.

“Apart from issue of bad roads, there are other things we are talking about; we have told them that we would report to the appropriate authorities if there are no changes. We have told our members that when you are supposed to carry out examination on a container and terminal operators did not position it on time, they should not pay.

“Some the terminal operators don’t have enough equipment” he said.

Some of the agents also confided in our correspondent that one of the terminal operators, Five Star Logistics Terminal is seriously experiencing the congestion.

According to one of them, Kingsley Uwem, “Documents are not coming out from that terminal as expected, when you go there for them to issue you receipt, they will tell you that there is port congestion”.

While he was accosted by journalists at the Customs command after meeting yesterday, a senior official of Five Star Terminal, Mr. Chuks Okereafor refused to comment on the alleged congestion.

Meanwhile, the Tin Can Chapter of Nigeria Customs Service has put to rest the controversies surrounding recent allegation of introduction of a new benchmark on general cargoes.

Speaking after the meeting with the Controller, the ANLCA chairman stated that the meeting was an in-house meeting to douse the tension that was brought about with the issue of benchmarking in Tin Can Port, it was a misconception but everything has now been simplified.

“There is nothing like benchmark in Tin Can, it was somebody misinterpreting what has been said about orderliness and procedure in the system, if you have an item that is not supposed to pay the figure of the benchmark they are talking about, you would not pay. We have items that lay N500,000.

“The customs are still working on giving us a uniform value on vehicles. For example, somebody is importing a 2018 Lexus 460 new one and someone else is bringing a damaged one, they are not going to pay the same value.

“A car of 2018 that has run 10,000 kilometers, apart from paying the 35% is not supposed to pay levy” he said.