The National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), has joined other maritime practitioners to condemn the unwarranted and reckless outburst of the Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Custom Agents (ANLCA), Mr. David Kaniku and the PRO of the PTML chapter of the association, Mr. Gani Adeola in separate press interviews.
In the said publication, the duo were alleged to have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to
sack the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Dikko Indeh Abdullahi.
According to them, Dikko has not only over-stayed in office but has also introduced some administrative changes in the running of the Customs, a move which Kaniku and Adeola considered as strange to the old order of doing business in the ports.
Kaniku threatened that there could be a riotous violence in all the ports if the President fails to do something urgently to address their demands.
It is against the backdrop of this disturbing signal that NAGAFF is joining other well-meaning freight forwarders and Maritime practitioners to condemn the unwarranted outburst and recklessness exhibited by Kaniku and Adeola in the Press interviews.
NAGAFF stated that Kaniku and his cohorts may have forgotten that the NCS is an agency of government solely entrusted with the enormous function of collecting appropriate duties (revenues) on imports and exports in Nigeria. Of course, to effectively and efficiently exercise this function, the CGC, as the Chief Revenue Officer of the government knows how best to go about achieving his target blockage of all avenues of revenue leakage.
According to NAGAFF on information from the office of the CGC, ”the mandate of the new officers is to monitor Customs examinations and ensure compliance to import and export guidelines, and not to witch-hunt anybody.”
NAGAFF said “The CGC, Alhaji Dikko has recorded monumental achievements far more than any of his predecessors and it is an open secret that Dikko has transformed the Customs Service especially in the areas of human capacity building, prompt promotion of officers and men of the service, expansive housing and insurance welfare scheme and general trade facilitation.
“Freight forwarders, including Davies Kaniku himself, are equally beneficiaries of the various Customs-sponsored training and retraining in line with the emerging modern technology and international best practices in the Maritime sector.
“In all fairness, it is our considered opinion that Kaniku and his likes in the freight forwarding profession must be called to order.
“The era of impunity is over and any attempt by anybody, no matter how highly placed, to truncate the existing peace and tranquility in the ports must be resisted.
“We at NAGAFF feel terrible that Kaniku and his cohorts are raising false alarm in our international gate-ways and we advise that the Ports Commissioner of Police should investigate Kaniku, as some of the issues he raised in the said interview could incite violence against Customs officials.
“We therefore, call on the Comptroller-General of Customs to protect its officers at this time of evolving change with a view to ensuring integrity in our ports.
