NPA Boss Tells Lawmakers How Police Extort Nigerians Through Illegal Checkpoints at Port Roads
kOKO bELLO
The Acting Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mr. Mohammed Bello Koko, has bared his mind on the illegal activities of police officers posted to the seaports environment which have affected trade facilitation.
Koko said the police officers were in the tradition of mounting multiple checkpoints on the ports access roads in Lagos, a practice which according to him has affected the electronic call up system for trucks going in and out of the ports.
Speaking during an interactive session held by the House of Representatives Committee on Customs in Abuja, Koko made it clear that the idea of the checkpoints was to extort money from port users, adding the checkpoints were not within the control of the NPA.
The NPA boss who responded to a question from Chairman of the Committee, Leke Abejide, on why the electronic call up system has not been working attributed the problem to the police and other security operatives in uniform.
The checkpoints, he said were within the red-zone areas of Apapa ports.
He also told the lawmakers that the Lagos State Government was aware of this problem, adding that both NPA and the state government have been working on addressing the gridlock in the ports.
He was quoted saying, “The first issue is the problem of extortion. There are multiple checkpoints within what we call the red zone. Let me explain. So you have multiple checkpoints that are just springing up. And these checkpoints are manned by police officers. At times you find men in uniform — naval or military escorting vehicles illegally and the Lagos State Government has been very cooperative in terms of enforcement of the SOP as it relates to the truck call up system.
“About last week we held a meeting with the Federal Road Safety Corps, LASTMA, the AIG marine, the CP and other officers in the police force and we decided that let them identify checkpoints and the essence of the checkpoints is not to interfere with the flow of traffic.”
Abejide admitted that his members had heard of similar complaints about police extortion from the transporters who said they pay between N250,000 top N300,000 to enter the ports.
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