NDLEA lobby National Assembly to remain at seaports

Indications show that two days after the management of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) read riot act that removed some government agencies from the ports as part of efforts to implement the Executive Order issued by Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, intensive lobbying has started by some of the affected agencies to return to the port.

It was gathered that the top management of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have approached relevant committees in the National Assembly to intervene, after the NPA issued an implementation directive on the order to its staff.

According to NPA, only seven agencies were permitted to operate within the ports and they include the NPA, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Ports Health, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Department of State Security (DSS).

While agencies like the national Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Plant and Animal Quarantine, Anti-Bomb Squad, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) were asked to quit their stay at the port.

NDLEA however claimed that if the order is carried out as given, Nigeria stands to suffer more than 60 percent influx of illicit goods through the ports into the country.

Recalls that two days after the NPA streamlined the number of government agencies at the ports, the NDLEA claimed in a statement signed by Ofoyeju Mitchell, head Public Affairs that it had the mandate of the Federal Government to operate at the ports.

The statement contradicted the stands of the NPA by saying that the Federal Government gave approval for eight agencies to operate at the ports.

Ripples Nigeria reliably gathered that different emissaries from two agencies affected by the policy had separately approached the law makers with what they termed “possible costs of the dislocation if applied strictly.”

They said the primary source of prohibited items, mainly, food and drug, as well as other sub-standard items is through the sea ports.

Ripples Nigeria report revealed that SON in particular, told the members of the House of Representatives Committee on Transportation that if the executive order was implemented, Nigeria would witness influx of more than 60 percent of substandard products into the country.

Also, NDLEA on its part told the committee that most of their officials were at the ports to detect illicit drugs that come into the country, and halt them from finding their ways to the markets.

The agencies were said to have argued that being totally removed from their duty posts in the ports could see the country losing its gains from the intensive checks on the influx of dangerous drug into the country, since 2002.

Sampson Ekong, the spokesman of SON, said that the SON being among government agencies is bound to obey any directive. “We are a government agency, so if there is a directive from government that we should leave the port, ours is to obey, though it would come with so many implications,” he added.

Another source in SON said compliance with the directive will lead to having about 30 percent staff being redundant, as most of their official activities take place at the ports.