The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Dr Pius Akutah, said the agency is working with the Maritime Police to address the blockage of cleared containers at the ports.

Akutah stated this during the stakeholders meeting in Apapa, Lagos, while addressing allegations of the council’s connivance with the Maritime Police to block duly-cleared containers from the ports.

He explained that rather than collude and connive with the police to inflict hardship on maritime stakeholders, the Council can only work with the police to enhance the security of cargo that is cleared out of the port.

Akutah stressed that the NSC, on receiving the petitions, took them seriously as it was part of the Council’s mandate to ensure the safety of cargo as cleared from the port to its destination.

“When we started receiving these petitions, we felt challenged, especially when in the petitions, it was said that we were colluding with the police and we said no, we cannot do that. We can only work with the police to enhance the security of your cargo that is cleared out of the port,” he said.

He said the council cannot prevent the police from carrying out it is mandate in the port environment, but will only dialogue to ensure the safety of cargo is guaranteed and that the Police is not complicating issues further for importers, thereby putting additional costs on top of those already incurred.

Akutah recalled that on so many occasions when the Council received complaints, it usually forwarded them to the Maritime Police, who, he said, worked on them without delay.

“These are issues around the sector that we need to deal with daily. So, we keep on advocating for understanding on your part and on our part also, we do our best to see that we tackle these issues so that they don’t deter the good work that you are doing,” he added.

The Public Relations Officer, Maritime Police Command, Mr Rasheed Adebayo, said the command needed to block containers duly cleared from the port if there is intelligence at its disposal pointing to a breach of the law. He said this intelligence is generated by the policemen at the ports during the examination led by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

Adebayo said during the week examination, the police do not interfere with the duty of Customs despite noticing some infractions, as they are not empowered to talk or point out illegalities to the examination officer at that point. He said, rather, the police officers report the feedback to the office, which is taken as intelligence.

“I must say that before now, years ago, you had other police formations come into the maritime industry to make arrests or even place orders on containers, all in the name of investigation. But the Shippers’ Council came to an understanding with the Nigeria Police Force that on no account should any police formation come into the maritime industry for investigation.

Speaking on the reason for their petition to the NSC, the Secretary, Joint Association of Freight Forwarders, Mr Chukwuemeka Dominic, said there have been a series of complaints about the blocking of containers by Maritime Police after clearance has been effected.

He said that at the point of the cargo release from the shipping line or writing the Terminal Delivery Order (TDO), the cargo owner would be notified to come and clear his container that has been blocked by the Maritime Police.

“However, this container has been cleared by customs and this has been hindering the facilitation of cargo. So, we began to wonder why this should be happening. We have Port Police and we have an Anti-Bomb squad of the Police and they are part of the examination, after which they will endorse the examination form that you have been cleared. After that, you will now hear that Maritime Police have intel, that you should go and clear with them,” he lamented.

According to him, “this has been the practice and recently we found out that now, after releasing you, the release authority will come from the Shippers’ Council,” he said.