We’ll continue to rid Nigeria of illegal courier operators — NIPOST
By Ogaga Ariemu
Nigerian Postal Service(NIPOST), has said its will continue to rid Nigeria of illegal Courier Operators.
This is coming as the Nigeria Courier Regulatory Body admonished Logistics companies to avoid the haulage of incriminating items and contrabands or risk severe sanctions.
The Post Master General of the Federation, Dr Ismail Adebayo disclosed this during a press conference held on Thursday.
Dr Ismail Adebayo who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer of NIPOST, Mr Yahaya Rufa’i said based on the security challenges in the country and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, NIPOST is poised to ensure those in the business of courier services follow the regulations guiding the sector.
He called on the courier service operators to consider themselves part of the nation’s security system by being forthright in their dealings.
“Courier companies working in Nigeria are given Clean and credible working environment as against illegal operators whose activities are impacting negatively on the society.
“Just yesterday the CLRD team were in Abuja after due diligence carried out operation on clampdown on illegal Operators.
“Our society is witnessing a lot of security challenges, this problem is everywhere in the world, Nigeria is not an exception and as a regulatory department we must ensure that we protect the interest of the public and our credible stakeholders.
“When NIPOST embarks on clampdown, it is done to protect the public. Today the environment is challenged with all manner of security issues including drug trafficking,” he said.
Earlier General Manager, CLRD, Mr. Gideon Shonde, who gave details of the raid and why it was carried out, said the clampdown was meant to sanitize the courier industry, where unhealthy and sharp practices have been going on for for time.
“The federal government is losing huge sums of money to illegal courier operators that operate under cover to also defraud customers. They disguise themselves as genuine courier operators, collect jobs worth millions of Naira from customers, and will not deliver on the jobs and it will be difficult for customers to trace them because of their questionable identity. The Post Master General of the Federation is worried about this development and has ordered the enforcement team of CLRD to go after illegal courier operators, in a bid to clean up the sector of all illegal activities,” Shonde said.
The General Manager Corporate Communications of NIPOST, Mr Franklin Alao had said the Service called on Nigerians to avoid patronizing illegal courier companies and cooperate with NIPOST in clamping down on illegal operators to enhance security.
Recall that CLRD NIPOST enforcement team on Monday cracked down on 3 illegal courier operators in Abuja due to undocumented registration and licensing.
The enforcement was carried out by a combined taskforce of the team from CLRD, NIPOST Investigation and Security team, Police officers from the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID) Lagos, Officers from FCT Command led by the Assistant General Manager in charge of Ethics, Complain and Strategy at CLRD, Mr. Worimegbe Banks.
However, in response to the enforcement activity, Two Courier companies visited the NIPOST headquarters to regularise their documents after which licenses were presented to them.
