The Acting Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Koko, has said the police erected multiple checkpoints at the entrances of the ports to extort money from users.
He said the illegal checkpoints are outside the control of the NPA.
Mr Koko also said military personnel sometimes escort vehicles illegally in and out of the ports.
He stated this at the interactive session organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Customs on Tuesday in Abuja.
While responding to questions raised by the Chairman of the Committee, Leke Abejide, (ADC, Kogi), on the e-call up system, Mr Koko said the checkpoints are within the red zone areas of the ports.
On the issue of the e-call up system, it is a system that was introduced to digitalise the manual system of bringing in trucks into the ports. The idea was for all trucks going into ports locations to exit from appointed truck terminals and then you will be called up, you look from one terminal to the other and then we are supposed to have e-ticket. This way terminal operators are able to know when trucks are coming in.
“In recent times, they have been given a dashboard that will even enable us to know when trucks are coming in. But there are multiple problems which we have addressed. Some of them are outside the Nigerian Ports Authority, outside the purvey of NPA.
“The first issue is the problem of extortion. They are multiple checkpoints within what we call the red zone.
“Let me explain. So you have multiple checkpoints that are just springing up. And these checkpoints are manned by police officers. At times you find men in uniform—naval or military escorting vehicles illegally and the Lagos State Government has been very cooperative in terms of enforcement of the SOP as it relates to the truck call up system,” he said.
The Chairman of the Committee had urged the press to take note of the issue of extortion while the acting MD was making his presentation.
But Mr Koko responded swiftly saying, “Chairman this information is meant to you, not for the media.
The chairman, in his response, said, “We went round. We went to Lagos. We went around this country, all the ports. And everywhere we went to, all the area comptrollers, they are complaining about this. And even the transporters too complained that they spent an average of N250,000 to N300,000 to enter the ports. So it is not that we are hearing it from you.”
Mr Koko also explained some of the steps taken by the NPA to resolve the lingering congestion at the Ports.
He said the NPA was working with the Lagos State Government to resolve the gridlock at the ports.
“About last week we held a meeting with the Federal Road Safety Corps, LASTMA, the AIG marine, the CP and other officers in the police force and we decided that let them identify checkpoints and the essence of the checkpoints is not to interfere with the flow of traffic,” the acting MD said.
The committee resolved to invite the Controller General of Customs, Hameed Ali, to appear before the committee to discuss underpayment of duties and the resultant harassment of Nigerians by the customs officials.
