NAGAFF Compliance Team set to picket erring port terminals, off-dock facilities
By Ray Ugochukwu
The 100% Compliance Team set up by the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), will any moment from now begin to picket offending port terminals and bonded warehouses for alleged trade infractions.
National Coordinator of the team, Alhaji Ibrahim Tanko, made the revelation in a chat with an online television platform recently where he expressed disappointment over the activities of the various outfits already visited by his team.
“We are still visiting the port terminals and bonded warehouses and we’re seeing what is going on there. When we finish our visitation, all the erring ones will be picketed. We’ll block their premises and we’ll not leave. Nobody will come in or go out until government comes down to see what we’re crying about”, Tank said.
The Niger State born frontline freight forwarder revealed that ever since his team embarked on the equivalent of #ENDSARS# crusade, there had been series of threat to his life and that of the members of his family from suspected agency operatives and fellow freight forwarders.
In his words, “Since we started this movement of correcting the ills in the port system, I’ve been receiving threat messages from not just government operatives but from fellow freight forwarders. You know I’m a freight forwarder too. There are those of us who make a lot of money from doing the wrong thing and so when they see you fighting for the right thing to be done, you become their enemy.
On the position of the government operatives, Tanko, who doubles as Chairman, Western Zone of NAGAFF, said it had been a frustrating experience.
“Like the President, Muhammad Buhari, said, it’s dangerous to fight against those who have too much money. They now see me as someone trying to stop them from continuing feeding fat from illegality and that’s why they are fighting me”. No nation can survive by doing things in a wrong way”.
“All consignments in my name are subjected to unending scrutiny with the attendant delays as a way of getting back at me for my crusade. I take it as the price I have to pay for us to get things right in the system. We will surely get there”, he asserted.
Tanko however expressed his resolve and that of his team not to be deterred by the threats. He therefore urged his team not to be discouraged by the antics of the few deviants in the system, assuring that with perseverance, the battle would soon be won.