NAGAFF members protesting at the Clarion terminals this morning.
Story by Dili Utomi.
There was a mild drama this morning at the entrance gates of the Clarion 1 and 2 bonded terminals at Alakija in the Ojo area of Lagos early this morning as members of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) denied entry to Customs officers, Freight Forwarders and Workers alike at the bonded terminals. Some members of the 100% Compliance Team of the association carried placards and chanted some songs of solidarity as they expressed their grievances over certain issues that they say have been happening to some members at the terminals and which they consider as injustice.
As early as six o’clock this morning, members of the association were gathered at the gates of the terminals to register their displeasure and were ready to be addressed by the management personnel of the terminals. At the Clarion 2 terminal, where the protest began an executive director at the terminal Mr. Frank Okocha was prevented from driving into the premises of the terminal as the freight forwarders demanded to be addressed.
Mr. Bert Okeke, the Wester Zone secretary of the NAGAFF 100% Compliance Team.
According to the secretary of the Western Zone of the 100% Compliance Team, Mr. Bert Okeke, the crux of the matter is the issue of a certain fleet of cars numbering a total of 14 which were cleared from the Clarion terminals since July 2021, but which the management of the terminals have been holding on to over an alleged unpaid assessment by the clearing agency that processed the clearing of the vehicles. The 14 vehicles were consigned to a company called Ajaji Continental Nigeria Limited and it is claimed that these vehicles were dully cleared and all necessary documents obtained for the movement of the vehicles out of the terminals.
Now, according to Mr. Okeke, the unpaid assessment has nothing to do with Ajaji Continental Nigeria Limited, but that 19 containers were consigned to another Company called First Degree Multinational Limited to whom the demand notice was issued. He said that record shows that the 19 containers left the supervising Port, the Tin Can Island Port, but never got to the Clarion terminals.
Mr. Godswill Ojogwu of the Ajaiji Continental Nigeria Limited.
Mr. Okeke says that the association suspects that the containers had arms and ammunitions in them, but never made it to the terminals due to the doggy attitudes of the management of the Clarion terminals as the containers all dissappeared into thin air. Mr. Okeke said that this action is called ” Flying, in the parlance of the freight forwarders”. He added that they had demanded that the management of the terminal show them the terminal delivery order (TDO) and the document showing that any staff of the Ajaji Continental Nigeria Limited received the 19 containers from the Tin Can Island Port on transire, but that the terminal operators have never been able to provide any of such documents. He also said that the terminal operators were asked to name the Customs personnel who signed documents and released the containers and also to provide such documents, but that none was provided, he lamented that their member who is the clearing agent has been dying in silence as the importer has been seriously stressing him and that he is almost financially incapacitated while the terminal operators have totally elected to pay deaf ear to the agents appeal.
Mr. Okeke said that several letters and entreaties have been sent to the Clarion terminals on this matter in order to absolve the Ajaiji Continental Nigeria Limited of any blame to no avail. He asked why the Customs has not blacklisted the agency if they have been found complicit in the matter of the missing containers. He therefore added that there is something untoward about the operations of the Clarion terminals and in their association with the First Degree Multinational Limited. He submitted that it was after a long and hard deliberation that they had 0decided to embark on this line of action to make the world realise the kind of illigality that is being perpetrated at the Clarion terminals. Mr. Okeke said that the importers of the 14 seized vehicles have also been to the office of the Compliance Team to appeal for action in order to have their vehicles released as they have nothing to do with dissappeared containers.
He mentioned that letters have been written to the Tin Can Island Port Controller of the Nigeria Customs Service over this matter and that also letters have been written to the Nigerian Maritime Action Network and the Commissioner of Police since December of last year, but that nothing concrete has been done about it. He says that “The First Degree Multinational Limited seems to be in connivance with the operators of the Clarion terminals over this matter”.
He claims that from investigation an unpaid assessment was issued to Ajaji Continental Nigeria Limited by the Agency that the 19 containers were consigned to, but that it was discovered that the Ajaiji Continental Nigeria Limited’s access number with the Customs was hacked and used to perpetrate an illegality and that this is what the management of the Clarion terminals is holding on to.
The managing director of the Ajaji Continental Nigeria Limited was interviewed and he claims that it was the management of the Clarion terminals that fraudulently used his license in 2018 and that he had to search for the perpetrator of the act which culminated in the stealing of the said 19 containers from the Tin Can Island Port. He said that as a former Customs officer, he followed the paper trail of the missing containers and discovered that the 19 containers left the Tin Can Island Port enroute the Clarion terminals, but never made it to the terminals as they were reportedly missing and that this act was perpetrated in 2018. He said that all fingers pointed to the management of the Clarion terminals as there was no record of the containers getting to the terminal nor any documents showing the duty paid or how it was released. Mr. Ojogwu said that in his attempt to confront the management of the terminal over the illegality, that he was almost mobbed at the staff of the terminal and that it later resulted in the seizure of the 14 vehicles which his company had fully and dully cleared as the terminal denied the vehicles the right of passage from the terminal to their destinations. He said that Clarion insists that his company must pay the over eight million naira (#8m) unpaid assessment imposed through a demand notice on the missing containers. Mr. Ojogwu said that he had personally written to the Customs, the Police, Nigerian Maritime Action Network and several other agencies, but has now decided to use the channel of the freight forwarders to seek justice on this matter.
One of the owners of the trapped vehicles, Mr. Emeka Ojiego described the action of the terminal operators in dissallowing them the removal of their vehicles after the due clearance of the vehicles since July of last year and said that this has imposed a lot of hardship on them as they cannot dispose off with the vehicles in anyway in order to recoup their investment.
The blockade of all the entrance gates to the terminals continued into the afternoon as the protesters demanded action from the management of the Clarion terminals. All efforts by newsmen to speak with anyone from the Clarion terminals in order to have their own side of the story were met with resistance as the gate minders were asked not to allow any Journalist into the premises of the terminal.
All the speakers want more spotlight shown on this matter in order to unearth the whole truth surrounding the dissappearance of the 19 containers allegedly carrying arms and the seizure of the 14 cars said to have been properly cleared by the agency in charge. They equally want the investigation to find out what led to the loss of revenue by the Nigeria Customs Service through the dissappearance of the 19 containers.
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