The disagreement between members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents and operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service, Onne Seaport, Rivers State, took a strange dimension on Tuesday when the agents placed a coffin at the gate of the Customs building during a protest.
The grouse of the agents was that the Customs Area Comptroller, Mr. Dan Ugo, allegedly established an illegal taskforce that had been extorting money from them.
The customs agents, numbering about 500, said the high duties imposed on them by the customs for goods to be released were outrageous and destroying business at the port.
They also complained of the opening of three gates at the seaport instead of one. The problem, according to one of the leaders of ANLCA, Mr. Uche Eloagu, was compounded by the alleged extortion of money from the agents. The protest, which began on Monday, continued till Tuesday.
When the protesters arrived at the gate of the Customs office on Tuesday, they brought a coffin that had the name of Ugo written on it and placed it at the gate of the command. The coffin was used to block the command’s only entrance and exit gate, a development which forced the area comptroller to stay indoor for several hours.
Apart from Ugo, who was held hostage as a result of the coffin outside his office main gate, some other customs officers were stranded in their offices for several hours.
Some top ranking officers of the Nigeria Police, the State Security Service and customs urged members of the communities in Onne to appeal to the protesters to remove the coffin.
But a youth leader in the community told the security operatives that the coffin could only be removed after some specific sacrifices were made. He warned that the consequence could be disastrous for whoever touched the coffin.
The man, who refused to identify himself, also said the sum of N500,000 must be deposited before the coffin would be removed from the gate. However, the customs officers, who were peeved over the development, did not buy the youth’s idea.
The protesters later left for their various destinations around 5.30pm, promising to come back the following morning with black garments.
They said the black garments and coffin were significant and targeted at Ugo, adding that it was a way of getting back at the customs officer for refusing to yield to their demands.
At about 7.50pm, a Hilux van loaded with armed naval ratings arrived the gate, shot intermittently into the air and removed the coffin.
The agents’ spokesman, Mr. Obinna Ugochukwu, told PUNCH METRO that they placed the coffin at the gate because Ugo called them cowards when they protested against the high charges, existence of illegal gates and illegal taskforce at the seaport.
Ugochukwu recalled that the Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko, had directed that illegal taskforce at all seaports in the country should be disbanded, wondering why the Onne command still had taskforce.
Similarly, Mr. Uche Eloagu, who is a member of ANLCA, said the agents’ chapel Chairman, identified simply as Mr. Odili, had met with the hierarchy of the customs several times to resolve the problem of illegal charges but to no avail.
He said, “We are saying no to illegal charges and taskforce. The Federal Government should hear our cry, the Senate should hear our cry; the state government should hear our cry because we are talking about the problem of youth restiveness.
“These extortions have made most of the youth in this region jobless because almost all the importers that were supposed to be using Onne Port have gone to Lagos. Onne Seaport charges three times higher than what obtains in Lagos as far as the payment of duties and tariffs are concerned.”
He called on the government to investigate the activities of the heads of Customs command in Onne.
The command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Eyo Inuekim, said, “If they (agents) burn down this place, the Nigerian government will lose and we will all lose too. We want to see how we can peacefully manage the situation.”
When asked to react to the allegation levelled against Ugo, Inuekim only promised to talk to the journalists later but did not come back until the naval operatives came to the scene to remove the coffin and disperse the crowd around 7.50pm.
Subsequent efforts made to get Inuekim to react to the allegations against the command were subtly rebuffed as he kept on asking for more time.
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