Licensed Customs agents yesterday held a peaceful protest at the head office of Tin Can Island Container Terminal, TICT at Polysonic Mall in Apapa, Lagos, over poor services being rendered by the terminal operator. The protesters marched round the TICT office amid solidarity song. Their grievances, as contained in the placards they carried range, from “Big problem”: “Delay in positioning of containers for examination”, “poor performance of trade facilitation”, “no enough facilities for scanning”, “additional shipping company is additional problem”, “fake auction on fresh containers”, “poor space management”, “lack of holding bay”, “manual documentation”, among others. The protesters, who were led by Comrade Kanikwu Davids, Secretary General of Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Tin Can Port chapter and top officers of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders, NAGAFF, Tin Can Island Port Chapter, were initially barred from gain access into the marketing hall of the terminal operator. But after persuasion, the protesters had their way. Speaking to the press on the development, Kanikwu Chuks David said they had meeting with the management of TICT and promised to improve and provide equipment to assuage the situation but they have not. According to him, “We held meetings with the managing director of TICT immediately we came into office highlighted all these things and he promised that they would address them. We waited for two, three weeks and months, the situation remains the same”. “When we came back again before anything could happen, the Israeli managing director went to the press and said the association was blackmailing him. And I don’t think it is right for one to accuse you when you want to render service to your people and somebody who is extorting the economy of this country. “What is the essence of concession? It is to make our port user-friendly, to ensure efficiency and service, to bring down cost of operations. What are having from TICT? The reverse is the case.” “They are busy going round the globe inviting shipping companies to their terminal biting more than they can chew and they don’t have facilities to handle what they have contracted to handled. And what should we do? Should we fold our hands? We have done the principle of engagement through various meeting with them. “The issues still remain the same. We are to show the world that this people are not qualified. They are transacting on analogue system when the modern trend is electronic transaction. They start billing you when your cargo is still on the sea; woe betides the container if it is meant for transfer”, Kanikwu stressed. Asking him the next line of action, Kanikwu said if the TICT management failed to meet up, agents would not hesitate to go total shutdown of the terminal, calling on the federal government to review the contract of TICT. “This is the first step; we are withdrawing our service if the situations remain the same,” he submitted. Effort to get the position of the TICT management on the development proved abortive as none was willing to speak to the press while the only one who pleaded anonymity said only the management can comment on the issue.
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