Onne Port Extortion Worries Traders

An appeal has been made to the Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Dikko, to intervene into the alleged corrupt activities championed by officers and men of the Onne Port area command, which have led to increase in the lost of clearing goods at the port.

Traders under the aegis of South East Market Traders Association in the South-East zone, who made the appeal recently after rising from their meeting in Aba, urged NCS to intervene by restoring due process into the operation of the port, as they blamed officers and men of Onne Port area command of alleged corruption at the port.

They alos urged CGC to dismantle all the check points mounted by the service in the zone to reduce corruption and allow easy transaction of goods to the area.

Okwudili Ezenwankwo, in an interview with the pressmen decried the high  level of corruption allegedly perpetrated by the customs in the area.

According to him, “we experience high level of extortion from the men of Nigerian Customs Service in the zone, appealing to traders in the zone to be calm, as the issue of extortion by security agents would be sorted out soon.

The Secretary-general of  the association, blamed the high cost of goods  in the market on the alleged extortion by security operatives including customs service in Onne port, stating that “traders contribute immensely to the economy of the country, thus negative activities affect the economy negatively.”

“We are law abiding citizens and so, it is not our wish to confront the government negatively, but the customs have pushed us to the wall  and that is why we are shouting for the public to hear,” he added.

He urged the customs CGC to give urgent attention to the alleged extortion to forestall possible face-off between the traders and the service.