Police interception of containers outside Ports is legal — Police

THE new Area Commander, Western Ports Police Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Assistant Commissioner Presley Dode has said that his officers have the right to check, stop and detain any truck with containers that they suspect ‘is carrying illegal goods even after it has gone through clearance processes at the port.

Dode said this when he paid a courtesy visit to the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) in Apapa, Lagos recently.

The NAGAFF high command had made it abundantly clear in the past that the police has no right to intercept containers already cleared by the customs after they had gone through the normal clearing procedures at the ports.

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NAGAFF Board of Trustees Chairman, Chidiebere Enelamah said communication was germane to the partnership between the association and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). “We know the job of police is to maintain law and orders and NAGAFF will always be prepared to partner with Nigeria Police Force. We have done that in the past with your successor by collaborating with him and yours is not going to be an exception.”

Expatiating further, the NAGAFF boss said “We always preach orderliness and that is why we opened NAGAFF Academy and we use this Academy to train our members and even the immediate past President (of NAGAFF) was a product of the school but today the Academy is more functioning because it was financially intensive to run stressing that “there is a collaboration between NAGAFF and Redeemers University to develop young ones every Saturday there is always assemblage of youngsters who come to acquire knowledge and the lecturers are from the university,” he said.

Unless there is a good and effective collaboration between NAGAFF and the office of the Assistant Commissioner, interception of containers from the highways may pose a big problem and probably cause some disruption of peace on the highways as NAGAFF have effectively made it clear that once containers are duly inspected and cleared after paying all the duties leveled on these containers, the police have no right to intercept it.