Police, Customs halt Lagos port activities – Over alleged plot to burn Tin Can – Tribune

Importers and Customs agents ran for dear lives on Wednesday, as men of the Nigeria Police and officers of the Federal Operations Unit, an anti-smuggling arm of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), halted all business activities at the Tin Can Island Port (TCIP), Complex, Lagos over agents’ alleged threats to burn down the port.

Those arrested thereafter were herded into a Black Maria, while the daring jumped over the fence to escape arrest.

Eyewitnesses told the Nigerian Tribune that the development was the climax of a face-off between the agents and the PTML’s Customs Area Comptroller, Garba Kuffi, over the latter’s decision to confiscate no fewer than 21 used vehicles.  The Customs said their clearing procedures were fraudulent.

The agents led by the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) TCIP Chapter Chairman, Kayode Farinto, were said to have interceded for a member of ANLCA who allegedly had fraudulently attempted to clear some 21 vehicles with fake documents,  a request the Customs’ command boss rebuffed on the grounds that he had just over-looked a similar case involving 96 vehicles, only six days earlier. Subsequently, Farinto allegedly threatened to set the entire port ablaze, but the ANLCA leader vehemently denied this.