NAHCO, SAHCOL Shutdown: Exporters Lose N100m In 2 Days
Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos[/caption]
Skyway Aviation Handling Company, SAHCOL, and Nigerian Aviation Handling Company, NAHCO have called on the Federal Government to look into the loss of N100m following the recent shut down of the Lagos export unit by the Federal Units Operations of the Nigeria Customs Services.
SAHCOL and NAHCO were closed down by the Nigeria Customs Services last week due to alleged hoarding of prohibited items.
Chief Executive Officer of ABX World, Captain John Okakpu who revealed this to newsmen, said they lost over N100 million worth of goods within 48-hours shutdown period.
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According to him, the government’s action was sending wrong signals to the comity of international agro-allied supply chain, which portended grave danger for the economy’s agro-allied produce, if not curtailed.
He said the agro-allied exporters numbering over 100 were worried that such incident was tantamount to economic loss while international off-takers were developing cold-feet with regard to agricultural produce from Nigeria.
Okakpu called on the federal government to urgently commence full-scale investigations into the immediate and remote causes of the warehouses’ shutdown to prevent re-occurrences.
He said: “Shutting down the warehouses was actually an indictment on customs, as they (customs officials) ought to have carried out surveillance before shutting down all export businesses at the Lagos Airport. If such act is not checkmated in future, it would compound issues and create a logjam in the system.”
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Supporting Captain Okakpu’s claims, the President, Nigeria Vegetable Exporters Association, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Temitope, said that her company alone lost over N1million worth of cargo within 24-hours of the export shed closure.
She lamented the widespread impact on the Association’s members numbering over 20, saying “It was a devastating day for us. We work at night so that as early as 6:00am our partner airline Arik Air would ship the vegetables. So, when the news got to us that customs have shut down both NAHCO and SAHCOL export shed my blood pressure shoot up.
Also, Veronica Ezigbo, Managing Director of Kiverlin Foods said that the incident should be thoroughly investigated, citing the impact as a negation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s change mantra.
She said, “The impact is very huge, because we deal on perishable goods. We are ordinary citizens of this country and do not deserve this kind of treatment. Customs officials know the people they are searching for, where and how to catch them. They acted ignorantly, because our line of business is very competitive; if you fail to deliver within few hours the vegetables get damaged too.”
