Customs, terminal operators sign SOP for transfer of containers
The TinCan Island Port command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and terminal operators have signed a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for transire.
Transire is a customs document describing the cargo, consignors, and consignees for clearance and entry of coasting vessels
The Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Adewale Oloyede, made this known at the sidelines of a media conference in Lagos on Wednesday.
Oloyede listed the terminal operators as Five Star Logistics, Clarion and Classic Bonded Terminals.
According to Oloyede, this is to ensure transparency and accountability in the container transfer process.
“On the issue of container missing in this port, since I took over, we have not had any case of such.
“But about two weeks ago, we had intelligence that one of the transires of vehicle that I approved, some vehicles that were not supposed to be part of the list were infused into the list.
“And I can tell you that six of the vehicles infused into the list are in enforcement.
“Because of that I arranged a meeting with Five Star Logistics, the two terminal operators, Clarion and Classic and we entered into another Standard Operating Procedures for transires,” he said.
He added that every transires must come back with a landing certificate, without that landing certificate, in one or two weeks, I will not sign any transire to those locations again.
He added that to fine-tune this procedure, the Command was meeting with all stakeholders before the end of this week so that issues would be looked into.
“Yes, there could be issues but we are on top of it. That is why we were able to take six exotic cars infused into one of the transire and they are with us in the encouragement station,” he said.
Oloyede said that he was aware of the alleged missing container from Clarion Bonded Terminals which was brought to his knowledge by the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders.
He said that no one could confirm whether the container was missing, noting that he had set up a committee to look into it.
“I received their letter on Monday and set up a committee with the Deputy Controller Administration as the chairman, and our legal adviser to look into the issue.
“They are to look into the issue within one week and report back to me on what happened to the 19 containers,” he said.
On the missing container carrying arms, he added that nobody could say if there were arms or not.
“We know how to check such, know how to profile both the importer and exporter, we will go historical and from history we will be able to know whether the importer or exporter is in that trade of arms.
“We need to be given time to officially look into this,” he said.
