The Nigeria Customs Service has blamed the electronic call-up system introduced by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) as the major cause of traffic gridlocks in Apapa, Lagos axis at an interview with news correspondents.
The agency also criticised some security agencies around the port access roads as another cause of the gridlock.
The National Public Relations Officer of the service, Timi Bomodi, denies the allegations that the NCS was impeding the free flow of traffic by intercepting cargoes at night.
The Presidential Standing Task Team had raised the alarm over activities of Customs Police allegedly coming to the port access road at night to impound already cleared containers from the seaports.
Reacting to this, Bomodi said that the service would investigate the allegation to know if they were true.
“They don’t have any way of verifying it, but we are going to verify it. If it is true, we are going to look at the reason why they are doing that. But if they are talking about congestion on the access roads to the ports, I think the biggest challenge is what they do – both the electronic call-up system by the NPA and other security agencies that are there. These have been the standard complaints.”
He also said that the team should focus more on the major cause of the issue.
“And for many months, we have not heard them raise so much of an issue on this very important part. We are not saying that we are downplaying their comments or their allegations. We are going to find out if their complaints are true of not. If they are true, we will let you know; if they are not true we will take action. But that is not the main problem of that road and we believe they should pay more attention on the main issue with that road.”
Meanwhile, the General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications, NPA, Ibrahim Nasiru, denied the allegation, saying that it was untrue.
 as the major cause of traffic gridlocks in Apapa, Lagos axis at an interview with news correspondents.){kind=link}