Ports: ANALCA says Presidential Task Force extorts N300m weekly

By Ade Jacobs

The Association of Licensed Customs Agents, ANALCA, has cried out to the Federal Government that trucks are no longer allowed into the ports during the day except in the night in order to allegedly enable brazen extortion by officials of the Presidential Task Team on Traffic Control in Apapa.

The task force was set up in May 2019, headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Kayode Opeifa, a former Commissioner of Transport in Lagos state, as Executive Vice Chairman, with the mandate to clear traffic gridlock on the ports access corridors. But its mode of operation has become an avenue for extortion, according to stakeholders who have continually called for its disbandment.

ANALCA’s Vice President, Kayode Farinto, had during the course of the week, in Lagos accused the Task Team of extorting truck drivers and agents to the tune of N280,000 per truck before they can gain entry into the seaports.

He said illegal collections by members of the task force amounted to about N300 million on a weekly basis, as he called on the federal government to intervene.

According to him, the Task Force “has been turned into a money making machine. I stand to be corrected but stakeholders lose an average of N300 million on a weekly basis to illegal collections by some members of the task team.”

Speaking exclusively to 365Daily on Wednesday, Farinto said the two major entry points to the seaports; Mile 2 and Ijora axis have become extortion centers for the Opeifa led Task Force.

He identified at least eight checkpoints along the two corridors where men of the Task Force extort money from truck drivers before allowing them entry into the seaports.

Farinto said the way to find out is to ‘hire a truck driver, tell the truck driver that you want to know each time he gives anybody money. Coming from Ijora along Apapa, you will see one check point where security agencies are manning; there is no way you can pass there without dropping money. Sometimes N10,000, N20,000 , N40,000 depending on those that are there. As you climb the bridge, you will see another two, by Leventis, you see another two.

“When you go to Mile 2 area on top of the bridge, they have their headquarters there, in front of PTML; there’s another one in front of Berger where they are selling vehicles. There’s another one in front of MTN.

“Most of these things are done at night. If you go there now, they don’t even allow trucks to enter the ports during the day again. If you come to the ports at night, it’s another life entirely, when you go to that Navy Bridge, you will think they are doing a party there.

“If you go there at night you will be able to grasp what we are saying. We are the ones feeling the brunt of this extortion and our members are complaining that the leaders are not doing anything.

“The chairman of the Task Team called me this morning to expatiate on the allegation. My brother we are not Iranians or Iraqis except somebody is trying to call blue black. The fact that I have a vehicle but I take okada everyday to see what my members go through on a daily basis, and I know what I’m saying. Nobody can fault me.

Meanwhile, efforts by 365Daily to get the response of Opeifa on the issue failed as he failed repeatedly to answer calls made to his telephone lines.