Port Congestion: NPA accuses Police, Military, others of extortion at multiple check points
Globaltimes
2 min read
NPA has accused Police, Military, others of extortion at multiple checkpoints.
NPA Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Yusuf Bello made the claim during an
interactive session with the House of Representatives, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian
Shippers’ Council (NSC) and other ports’ operators organised by the Rep. Leke Abejide-led Committee on Customs &
Excise.
Also at the hearing, Rep. Abejide assured that his Committee, will lobby for the establishment of Special Courts to fast-track prosecutions of offenses
at the ports.
The NPA boss also confirmed that over 5,000 containers are currently stocked at
various terminals including Onne, Calabar, Warri, among others, blocking business activities, adding that certain changes introduced by Customs and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) contributes to the existing challenges at the Ports.
“Let me mention here Sir, currently there are over 5,000 containers across the ports that are overtime cargoes, a cargo is overtime after 90 days. Some of these containers are actually more than a year old, and when you leave these containers there, you are also occupying space that would have been used for containers importedinto this country.
For instance APMT has 1,051, Watts has 660, Intelshas 169, ECMT has 574; we will give you the breakdown of all of them.
“Now let me add Sir, the containers are suppose to be evacuated to Ikorodu terminal. Currently Ikorodu terminal has over 2,500 containers the place is filled up. Nigeria Customs has not auction containers to the best of our knowledge in recent times.
So there is even no space to take empty containers. We haven’t seen any container moved out of Ikorodu terminal for auction, so there is need for that to be done in order to free ports of overtime cargoes some of them have been there for so many years.
