By Uzor Odigbo
Tin Can Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has admitted that the #EndSARS protest has taken huge tolls on its operations as it did on other sectors of the economy.
The command added that it had swung into action to review the agitations of the freight forwarders who hid under the #EndSARS protest to call for review of some issues from the Service.
In a chat on Sunday, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the command, Superintendent of Customs (SC) Uche Ejesieme, said that the command had articulated the concerns of the agitators and are being attended to.
According to him, the command would attend to the issues that fall within the command’s capacity while others would be channelled to the headquarters for appropriate attention.
Customs Agents and Freight Forwarders had in addition to the call to end SARS, demanded that the management of Customs end issues of alerts, FOU and Strike Force.
Ejesieme, who lauded the efforts of Nigeria maritime 360 and other stakeholders within the command who ensured that hoodlums did not hijack the protest and turn it into violence, said the Controller of the Command, Comptroller MBA Musa had called for the review of the agitations of the agents.
He said, “The protest actually disrupted activities in the port. Don’t forget that the world economy was still grappling with the pandemic before this protest.
“Generally speaking, the protest has had its toll on the entire gamut of our operations.
“We are happy that government is working tirelessly to restore normalcy.
“We also appreciate our esteemed stakeholders for their maturity in ensuring that hoodlums did not hijack the protest on that day.
“This they did same day and as we speak, the CAC has directed a review and evaluation of their complaints with a view to addressing the ones within our purview while escalating others to Customs headquarters.
“You will recall that the protesters were in Tin Can on Tuesday 20th October as part of the ongoing protest.
“But in our own case and in addition to #EndSARS protest, they also mentioned some issues agitating their minds.
“As a responsible command, the Controller, Comptroller MBA Musa requested them to articulate their grudges through their leaders.
We also appreciate our esteemed stakeholders for their maturity in ensuring that hoodlums did not hijack the protest on that day” Ejesieme stated
“This they did same day and as we speak, the CAC has directed a review and evaluation of their complaints with a view to addressing the ones within our purview while escalating others to Customs headquarters.