LCCI kicks against Customs deployment of strike force at Lagos ports
Joy Obakeye
Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has kicked against the deployment by Customs Service a strike force with the power to intercept and effect seizure of cargo.
In a statement signed by the Director General of the Chamber Mr Muda Yusuf the Chamber said “The attention of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has been drawn to the circular issued by the Customs Headquarters, deploying the ‘Strike Force’ to all ports with the powers to intercept and effect seizures of cargo.
This move by the Nigeria Customs Service will be detrimental to investment, it will further complicate the already difficult cargo clearing process, it would undermine the Ease of Doing Business Policy of the Buhari administration and a negation of the Presidential Executive order on the streamlining of ports processes.
“Some of the implications and consequences are as follows: The directive confers vast discretionary powers on the Strike Force which makes the cargo clearing process vulnerable to arbitrariness and coercion which could undermine the integrity and credibility of the process.
The deployment of the strike force to the ports suggests a distrust and lack of confidence in the resident customs officers who were deployed to the various commands by the CG in the first place.
The appropriate thing to do in the circumstance is for the CG to replace these officers with trusted ones rather superimpose another set of customs operatives on the system.
This new deployment would make the entire process chaotic, cumbersome, costly and inefficient.
“The Lagos Ports are the largest ports in the country handling over 1.5 million twenty-foot containers equivalent (TEUs) annually. This underscores the enormity of the consequences of physical examination of containers for the efficacy of cargo clearing.
It is incredibly detrimental to the cargo release process and the economy. It is imperative for the Federal government to expedite actions on the procurement of scanners for the ports in order to put an end to the physical examination of cargo and make the system technology driven.
The LCCI submits that the deployment of the Strike Force to the ports should be reversed forthwith.
Where the Comptroller-General does not trust the resident officers, they should be replaced with trusted ones rather than creating overlapping responsibilities and authorities which would further muddle an already arduous cargo clearing process.
