Activities at the cargo section of the Murtala Mohammed Interna-tional Airport (MMA), Lagos, has been paralysed and movement of cargo suspended due to disagreement between two groups of Nigeria Customs Service officials who have been fat loggerheads since Tuesday this week.
THISDAY learnt that earlier in the week, Customs officers from Federal Operations Unit stormed the airport accompanied by men with guns and stopped those at the Customs Unit in the airport from carrying out their duties.
Consequently, cargoes off-loaded from different aircraft littered the entire apron of the airport, with Customs warehouse filled to the brim because clearing had not taken place since the invasion.
The Customs Area Controller in-charge of the airport, Dauda Gwaru, told top officials of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), that he did not know why the airport was invaded by their colleagues from Federal Operations.
The Airprt Manager, Mr. E. Olarerin, who was shocked by the action of the Customs, said that they were holding the whole country ransom because by their action. He added that the Customs had also disrupted several businesses in the country.
Olarerin also disclosed that the officials from the Federal Operations turned some cargo planes back because of the brouhaha, noting that such action was a stain on the image of the country and wondered why the Customs officers at the airport command have not been told what they had done.
The bad situation at the airport will degenerate by Monday when the whole cargo section would become filled up with cargo as more cargo planes arrive to offload their content.
The Director of Airport Operations, Mr. John Ezenwankwo, condemned the actions of the Customs and said that bringing gunmen into the airport is against the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations, noting in an interview with THISDAY that whatever the Customs officers at the airport had done paralyzing cargo operations was not the best way to ameliorate the problem.
“There was no reason for them to storm the place. What they have done is against ICAO regulations. Whatever they were doing should have stopped at the cargo shed instead of going to the apron.”
He said that even if they have compromised their positions the best thing would be for the Nigeria Customs Service to remove those at the airport instead of suspending activities, which have deadlocked operations at the airport.
“That is not the way to solve the problem; you change them. If they have compromised you change them, you don’t have to paralyze operations in an airport for one week because you officers have compromised. The only thing you could do is, even if you want to take them away on handcuffs you bring another set of people and put them there. That is what is supposed to be done. Not that you come and put mail all over the place and say no activities; meanwhile flights are coming in dropping cargo.”
He dismissed the idea that the Customs from outside the airport had to storm the place because of contraband goods brought in by a plane, saying that it was not enough reason for the action.
“Bringing in contraband goods is a very simple matter. Everyday cargoes come in with contraband. They are taken and put in a warehouse- in a bonded warehouse. Contraband goods that were caught by the Customs are kept in a place. We have standard procedures for seizures both by the Federal Operations and by Customs at the ports, all of them have procedures. That procedure is being breached.”
The Director of Operations lamented that the airport operations have been grounded in terms of clearance of goods, even as more cargo planes were landing, noting that the whole place was stifled with uncleared cargo.
“The whole place is filled up with uncleared cargo and it is causing confusion in the whole place. Nigeria is being embarrassed. Whatever is their problem they should go and settle it without embarrassment to the whole nation and without inconvenience to other stakeholders. You can see now their internal squabbles have now affected every other operation at the airport, and it is going to affect operations in other airports, because these goods coming here are leaving to other airports.”
After meeting with the Customs at the airport, Ezenwankwo said that FAAN would also meet with the ones from Federal Operations and after the meeting the Authority would formerly write to the Minister of Transport who would wade into the matter.
There are indications that suspicion and allegations of corrupt practices prompted the action of the Customs officers from Federal Operations, but that action has unanimously been condemned by stakeholders at the airport.