The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has empowered the recent task force set up to check revenue leakages and corruption among the government agencies with operational vehicles and motorcycles at Lagos seaports.
The western zone chapter of the association’s task force operations will cover Lagos seaports down to Seme and Idiroko borders.
Speaking at the unveiling and the presentation of the vehicles and motorcycles in Apapa on Monday, the Vice President of ANLCA, Dr Kayode Farinto, said the task force was set up to expose those who are engaging in corruption, saying that the task force would send signals to those who are in the practice of supporting illegality.
According to him, the modus operandi of the task force has been handed over to the task force, ensuring that the association would support the taskforce and as well invoke what he called the “Moron Doctrine”.
He said: “I want to commend the zone for this laudable project, the licensed custom agents have been erroneously blackmailed and given different names, as if we are the bad eggs of the society and I do know that it takes two to tango, with this , your effort will send signal to whoever is into bad practices in the society “
“The modus operandi and terms of reference have been given to them. We will not support any illegality. However, let me also say we are going to invoke the moron doctrine, which is a situation where you release a cargo genuinely, you can no more arrest that cargo. It becomes illegitimate and out of place, it is no more in line with international best practices. He, therefore, appealed to all members to be patriotic and not get involved in the clearance of hard drugs such as Tramadol and the rest at the nation’s ports, saying if such cargo is arrested, let the agent and the customs officer that released the cargo be arrested too, enough of the bad names.
Also speaking at event, the Western Zone Coordinator of the task force, Sir John Offobike, said the association would work day and night to make sure that government policies are being implemented. He said that the buses and bikes were donated by stakeholders who feel the plight of the customs agents, while asserting that the task force will do the needful in ensuring that the bottleneck in the operation of licensed customs agents are removed.