The Return of Wharf Rats to Lagos Ports

One of the dark spots of pre-concession era of the Nigerian Ports was the activities of ‘Wharf rats’

‘Wharf rats’ is a notorious sobriquet used for the bunch of interlopers who gain access into the ports to pilfer and vandalise cargo, especially vehicles.

Before the 2006 port concession programme, their activities had assumed a dizzying height that there was hardly a day an incident of pilfering was not recorded.

They had a field day due to the loose access control mechanism put up by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), which was running terminal operations then.

During those inglorious years, Nigerian ports, especially the Lagos ports, were not different from the marketplace which witnessed indiscriminate access of people into the terminals.

However, the 2006 concession programme, which ceded the control of terminal operations to private business interests, seemed to have restored sanity to the ports.

Each of the concessionaires put up what could pass for robust security measures to checkmate indiscriminate access into their facilities through rigours access control mechanisms.

Port users, especially importers whose goods had hitherto been subjected to wilful vandalisation and pilfering, heaved a sigh of relief as they could take their goods out of the ports, intact.

Unfortunately however, 13 years down the line, the sanity and sanctity of the terminals have now been invaded as the notorious Wharf rats may have staged a comeback.

In quick succession, the notorious Wharf rats invaded three terminals in a row where they perpetrated their evil acts.

At Cargo terminal C at the Tin Can ports, multiple incidents of container broaching and pilfering were reported where containerised vehicles were pilfered.

Similarly, at the Five Star Terminal also at the Tin Can port, vehicles were being routinely pilfered by human rats.

The most audacious of the activities of these notorious Wharf rats happened at the APM Terminals where container laden with the banned Tramadol was pilfered and the contents almost taken away before they were intercepted by the Customs officers.

These incidents clearly signalled the resurgence of the activities of port rats.

To say the least, we are not only saddened by this unfortunate development but worried by the implications on the security architecture of the ports.

We have assumed, just like every other stakeholders, that this obnoxious incident has gone with the dark days of pre-concession era when it had almost become a daily occurrence at the port.

We are at a loss why the perpetrators of this heinous acts could once again gain access into the terminals, given the level of seeming tight multi layers security and strict access control mechanism of each of the terminal operators.

Apart from the individual control mechanism of the terminal operators, the security personnel of the NPA as well as the port police are believed to be on ground to complement the security measures of the terminal operators.

It then came to us as a rude shock that the Wharf rats could penetrate the seeming impregnable security web woven round these terminals.

Given this scenario, we are tempted to conclude that the resurgence of the activities of these Wharf rats are being aided and abetted by insiders.

It is not difficult to assume that the internal security arrangements of the affected terminals have been shamefully compromised.

It will become practically impossible for external ‘rats’ to gain access into these terminals without the active connivance of the internal ‘rats’.

There is also possibility of the fact that some of the internal security personnel of these terminals may have metamorphosed into Wharf rats themselves.

Whatever may be the case, efforts must not be spared by the Nigerian Ports Police, NPA and the terminal operators themselves to rise up in unison to deal with this resurgent cankerworm before it begins to fester.

The efforts should go beyond the uncoordinated and indescrimate arrests being made by the police which we dare say, are blindly being carried out.

The terminal operators should conduct self-audit of their internal security system to identify and flush out anyone who may have been compromised or become the weak link in the security arrangement.

We need not remind the NPA and the terminal operators of the adverse economic implications which the resurgence will have on the image of the port system in the country.

If allowed to fester, it will shrink the patronage of the ports which will in turn negatively affect the revenue of both the government and the terminal operators.

In a bid to stave off this unpleasant scenario, NPA should place strict access control on the common user areas at the ports while the terminal operators should review and tighten their respective access control mechanism into their facilities.

The NPA should install CCTV at all the common user areas within the ports as well as approaches to the ports.

This will complement the existing security measures which the terminal operators have at their respective facilities which include, we assume, the Close Circuit Television(CCTV).

The NPA should also improve the lighting of the common areas at the ports just as we admonish the terminal operators to do the same in their respective facilities.

The Ports Police should also step up its surveillance of the port environment in a bid to detect and prevent commission of crime.

They should deploy more energies and attention to detection and prevention of crimes rather than their present vocation of harassing innocent port users as well as disrupting cargo clearance procedures through their unwarranted interception of cargoes that have already been cleared.

We believe that if all the relevant agencies and individuals charged with the security of the port environment are diligent in their duties, the resurgence in the activities of Wharf Rats at the ports will be a flash in the pan.