Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Zonal Coordinator of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Lagos Zone A, Alhaji Dahiru Aminu has given assurance that he will address the challenges being faced by the customs agents or freight agents at the Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja.
The Zonal Coordinator made the promise during a visit to the headquarters of NAGAFF when members of the association complained to the ACG of the various challenges being faced at the airport when clearing goods in the hands of Customs.
Head of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam had complained to the Customs Service that operatives of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), are in the habit of laying ambush few meters away from the seaports to intercept goods released by fellow officers.
The association said freight agents were facing a lot of obstacles in clearing their goods at the airport, adding that this was worrisome since most the goods were perishable and time bound.
The association further stressed that officials of the NCIS I and NCIS II have been creating a lot of problems for freight agents clearing goods at the airport. Stated that some of the goods which go through the airport were items brought in by people who had gone for holiday, the association said there was the need to create windows to clear such goods without much delay.
According to the association, the bottlenecks created by officers of the Customs at the Airport was discouraging importers using the airport.
Dr. Aniebonam had particularly requested the ACG for simplification of procedure at the airport considering that some of the goods are perishable.
He commended the ACG for creating time to visit agencies to listen to their various challenges and addressing them, but however, argued that there was no need to create relevance for FOU.
“If a custom agent invites a proper custom officer for examination, then the whole thing can be settled there if there is breach of law, then those in concern should take action rather than releasing the containers and it is again intercepted. Why do we create relevance for FOU? ”
Other issues discussed during the meeting include selectivity at the port, noncompliance, blockage and scanning.
Following the complaints, the ACG promised to visit the Airport to see things for himself and hear the other side.
On the issue of blockage, he said he has tried to stop the headquarters from blocking any agency before informing him.
He said, “I found out that someone can just causally block someone for no reason. Agency being blocked is like denying someone of his source of livelihood. I tried to stop headquarters from blocking agency. I wrote them to inform me before blocking any agency”
On seizures by FOU which the association complained about, the ACG said no customs agent has called him to report to him about unjust seizure by the Unit.
He said there has been an improvement in respect of the FOU operation as against the case before when calls were coming in every now and then.
The ACG appealed to agents to put the interest of the country first. He asked them to stop accepting jobs that will not do the country any good.
He advised that agents should always make sure they know what their clients are bringing in and advise them based on that.