LAGO: Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Customs Area Controller (CAC), Apapa Area Command, Apapa, Lagos, Comptroller Charles Eporwei Edike has said that there are no containers allegedly ordered for the exemption from the mandatory NCS examination in his command.
Nigeria’s premier port, Apapa Quay, which has Africa’s largest container terminal in its precinct is under the watch of Apap Area Command.
Described as the busiest in the country as a result of the high volume of cargo that passes through it annually, the NCS High Command sees it as its poster command.
The command was said to have exempted some containers from the mandatory NCS examination on the orders of the Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Inde Dikko Abdullahi.
However, in an exclusive interview with THISDAY, Edike said the containers allegedly exempted from the mandatory NCS examination do not exist in his command.
Edike said there was no iota of truth in the allegations making rounds in some quarters.
Describing the allegations as lacking substance, malicious and misleading, the CAC maintained that there was no time the Comptroller General of Customs issued any directives to his officers restricting them from examining some containers and imports.
According to him, the article titled “Don’t Inspect Some Containers, CG Customs Directs Officials” published in an online news medium was not true. Although MAERSK Calabar/CMA-CGM vessel with voyage number 8M120E berthed at the APM Terminal Apapa on Friday May 15, 2015 with 473 containers, none of the containers bore the alleged bill of laden numbers.
Continuing, Edike said: “The containers quoted by the publication with bill laden numbers DEMO121817, DEMO121765, DRUN004554, DPPC101939 and QDGY004478 never arrived APM Terminal Apapa port on board MAERSK Calabar/CMA-CGM vessel as buttressed by the ship manifest”.
He revealed that the second vessel, Grande Cotonou also mentioned in the report never berthed in Apapa port at any time.
According to him, no cargo is treated as a sacred cow. In accordance with the laid down procedure for clearing containers/ imports, they had subjected the consignments to 100 percent physical examination and scanning as triggered by the ASYCUDA risk mechanism.
“As far as I am concern, the misleading claims contained in the mischievous report were a deliberate attempt sponsored by some persons to sabotage the good and innovative transformations being witnessed by the Service under the present leadership of NCS headed by Alhaji Inde Dikko Abdullahi,” he said.
The CAC maintained NCS and its Apapa Command would continue to adhere strictly to all federal government directives on imports and contrabands, even as he enjoined the media to ensure professionalism by verifying claims before going to press.
