National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) 100 percent Compliance Team has accused Clarion Terminal of illegally releasing 19 containers in connivance with the importer without payment of demand notice amounting to about N8.5million.
The freight forwarders picketed the Clarion Shipping Terminal Limited office at Alakija, Lagos, over illegal withholding of 14 vehicles belonging to its members and alleged sharp practices at the terminal.
The protesting NAGAFF members, who carried placards with various inscriptions such as: Clarion Releases Containers Without Terminal Delivery Orders (TDOs); Who Released The 19 Containers Without Payment of Duties?;
First Degree Agency And Clarion Are Partners In Crime and Clarion Releases Containers Without Customs Release, among others, disrupted business activities at the terminal preventing the staff and the terminal manager access to the premises The Trumpet gathered.
Speaking with journalists in Lagos, Secretary, Western Zone of NAGAFF Compliance Team, Bart Okeke, said the 14 vehicles had been withheld at the terminal since July 2021 despite full payment of import duties and other charges.
He said contrary to claims by Clarion terminal that Ajaji Continental Limited, the license company which the 14 vehicles were consigned to for clearance had unpaid assessment, the agency had nothing to do with the assessment as he noted that the agency’s license was hacked and fraudulently used to process the 19 missing containers.
Read Also: Court jails Internet fraudsters in Benin City, P’Harcourt
He argued that if Ajaji Continental Limited had been found to have unpaid assessment and refused to pay, the
Customs would have blacklisted it, but the agency is still operating and its license with the Customs still intact.
Okeke said several letters had been written to Clarion Terminal and efforts to dialogue with its management to release the vehicles had been futile, adding that appeal to the Customs and the Nigerian Shippers Council (NCS) to prevail on the management of Clarion had also failed.
“From investigation, the Demand Notice (DN) was given to a particular consignee called First Degree Multinational Limited that was supposed to have brought some containers from the Tin Can Port to the bonded terminal.
“The 19 containers we suspected to have been carrying arms and ammunition, because from the attitude of everybody in the terminal, there was nothing to show that the containers entered the terminal. They did flying of containers.
“We request that they show the TDOs of the 19 containers, who received them on behalf of Ajaji Continental Limited that the bonded terminal claimed to have unpaid assessment to its name, but they have refused. Who received the consignment from Tin Can? It asked, lamenting that the company hadso far, not responded. This is a massive fraud on the part of Clarion Terminal.
Also speaking, Managing Director of Ajaji Continental Agency, Godswill Ojogwu, alleged that Clarion Terminal
fraudulently used its license throughFirst Degree Multinational Limited to steal the 19 containers from the Tin Can Island Port and demanded payment of N8.5 million on the missing containers.
He explained, “I am a retired Assistant Controller of Customs and on my retirement, I started to run a freight forwarding company called Ajaji Continental Limited. I’m also a member of NAGAFF. Clarion used my license fraudulently in 2018 and when I discovered it, I noticed that the terminal used my license to steal 19 containers from the Tin Can Island Port.
“From investigation, I discovered that the containers were moved as bonded transfer goods. They were supposed to move from Tin Can to Clarion, but documents showed that the containers did not follow due process, because they were not released. When my licence was blocked, I approached the Customs, which directed me to Clarion to release the containers.”
Efforts to speak with the management of Clarion Terminal were unsuccessful, as the terminal manager and other management staff declined to speak with journalists.
