The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Ports

  • Diversion of containers: EFCC swoops on Lagos ports

    Diversion of containers: EFCC swoops on Lagos ports

    Senior officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will visit the Lagos ports today, to investigate the illegal clearance of about 35 containers that were being moved to a Bonded Terminal in the Badagry- Expressway axis, but were allegedly diverted to an unknown destination without the appropriate duty paid to the Federal Government by the importers and the clearing agent, The Nation has learnt.

    Sources said the Chairman of the anti-graft agency, Mr Ibrahim Lamorde, directed his officers to investigate the matter after realising that the duty paid on the diverted 35 containers is over N2.5 billion.

    Sources said the Presidency became unhappy when it realised the involvement of some senior Customs officers from Tin Can Port and directed the EFCC officials to unravel their involvement.

    Sources said officials of the commission would also investigate other top officials of government agencies at the port and authenticate the freight forwarding firm that allegedly cleared the containers.

    “The government became worried when it was realised that some senior government officials were involved in the scam and that was why the EFCC has been drafted to the port to investigate the matter and other sundry issues to bring sanity to the port.

    “The Presidency is not happy that such quantum of goods could get out of the port without anybody accounting for them.

    “The issue becomes worrisome when certain individuals and agencies of government are deliberately thwarting the efforts of the Federal Government to sanitise the ports based on the high level of insecurity in the country. “If senior Customs officers can be involved in such shady deal, it means the government must be very vigilant so that some greedy individuals do not endanger the lives and property of the people,” the official said.

     

  • EFCC moves into ports Monday

    EFCC moves into ports Monday

    The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Friday said it will on Monday commence undercover operations at the nation’s ports as part of efforts aimed at sanitizing port operations.

    The Chairman of the commission, Mr. Ibrahim Lamorde, made the disclosure while receiving the Special Adviser to the President on Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye, who paid him a courtesy visit at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

    A statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of the EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren said the ports will be rid of bad eggs.

    The statement quoted Lamorde as saying: “I assure you that we all understand the importance of the Maritime industry in Nigeria and we will do everything possible to make sure that the work you are doing is successful.

    “In fact, we will start deploying our people to the Ports from Monday to make sure that people that are not needed are removed.”

    Earlier, Monye had informed the EFCC chairman that he had come to seek the commission’s assistance in tackling some of the challenges undermining the port reform efforts.

    He said certain individuals and agencies of government are deliberately thwarting the efforts of government at sanitizing the nation’s ports.

    Monye added: “We have situations where agencies of government deliberately mount obstacles for them to generate pecuniary benefits for themselves. The idea is that the more delay you have, the more likely people pay up.

    “The reason why we are bringing EFCC into the whole thing is that these agencies are part of the problem. Where you have agencies of government constituting themselves into bottlenecks, we need to remove these bottlenecks.”

    He further disclosed that the Port Reform Committee is poised to remove all obstacles in the way of efficient clearing process at the ports.