"72-Hour Ultimatum On Trucks Should Be Legally Sustained" - Customs

In the effort to carry out the presidential directives on evacuation of trucks on all the roads leading to Apapa port within a period of three days, the officer in charge of enforcement at Tin-Can Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Deputy Controller Dera Nnadi, has said that the exercise should be sustained legally so that the situation will no longer be experienced in the future.

In an exclusive chat with Vanguard Maritime Report during the stakeholders meeting held in Apapa recently to address the issue, Nnadi said that the legal backing will go a long way in solving the traffic problems and ease Nigerians and international community of the burden of doing business in and around Apapa.

According to him, "What I understand here is that it is an ad-hoc arrangement that will last for three days and as I told them there, it is my wish that whatever success may occur during this exercise, it should be sustained on a legal basis.

"The port community is suffering, Nigerians are suffering, the international community is concerned because anything that is happening here affects them globally. Nigeria is not in isolation of the global supply chain. If you bring in cargo you must get to the consumers, particularly for exports that are very important for the government."

He also advised the truck drivers to obey the port rules to enable free movement of goods to and from the port's through the designated channels.

"It is a welcomed development. I heard what they said about port operations with Customs and I have also told them that all the port access gates are channelled.

"We have different channels for imports cleared cargo, we have channels for the cargo that is going out of the state under satellite terminals, we also have channels for exports. 

"Now, our advice is that the truck drivers should learn to queue in any particular channel that they are delivering."