Reprieve has come the way of freight forwarders over trapped third party containers at the Lagos ports. The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has agreed to resume the clearing of over 5,000 third party containers trapped in the wake of the suspension order placed on them.
The reprieve, however, carries 25 per cent surcharge of the total payable duties.
The Vice-President, Western Zone, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Tanko Ibrahim, who confirmed the development, lauded the NCS Comptroller-General, Col Hameed Ali (rtd) and DC-G, T&T, Issa Talatu, for what he described as their “timely intervention to bring succour to the freight forwarders.”
Ibrahim, who also lauded the Customs chief for giving “listening ears” to the yearnings of the aggrieved freight forwarders, assured that the clearing agents would not abuse the privileges given to them.
He said apart from the withdrawal of the Compliance Team from the ports, the Customs chief had promised to withdraw other ad-hoc teams from Customs clearance procedures at the ports.
“On behalf of my appreciative colleagues, I thank the C-G and Deputy Comptroller-General in charge of Tariff and Trade, (DC-G T&T) DC-G Issa Talatu for this uncommon gesture and high sense of responsibility they displayed on this matter. We can only wish that other task force teams are withdrawn from the ports to ensure smooth cargo clearance procedures, “Ibrahim said.
Some aggrieved Customs brokers, under the aegis of Concerned Freight Forwarders in the Western Zone, had threatened to go on strike if task forces such as C-G Strike Force, Compliance Team, Customs police, Surveillance Team, Information Team and other ad-hoc teams sent from the headquarters to the ports were not withdrawn.
Some members of the Governing Board of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) waded into the situation to douse the tension, with a promise to interface with the Customs top hierarchy to resolve the matter.
In January, the NCS, in a circular signed by the DC-G, T&T, Issa Talatu, had ordered the immediate stoppage of the clearance of goods that had discrepancies in the names of importers and other information provided in the clearing documents. In yet another circular, Ali had directed all Area Controllers to suspend the release, till further notice, any cargoes with discrepancies in their documentation. Over 5000 containers were said to have been trapped at the Lagos ports as a result of the directive.
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