Customs Building, Contraband Obstruct Railway Track At Lagos Port
One of the buildings by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and some contraband seized at the Lagos Port are blocking the railway track, making it difficult for cargo evacuation in the last three years.
The Deputy Managing Director of the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC), Xia Lijun told the Joint National Assembly Committee on Land Transport during an oversight function that a customs building was sitting along the standard gauge rail track inside APM Terminals in the last three years, saying that several efforts were made to remove the building without success.
It was also gathered that some seizures were stacked on the rail tracks by the Service and have blocked the five standard gauge rails and three narrow gauge rails that are all linked to the Apapa port in Lagos.
He said: “Despite connecting the port; we cannot move containers by rail on the standard gauge trains because there is a building belonging to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) sitting on the rail track inside APM Terminals.
“We have made repeated efforts to remove that building but it has all been fruitless. It’s now three years since we have been asking that the Customs building should be removed, but nothing of such has been done.
“Yes, we are moving passengers on the standard gauge rail, but the real money is in the movement of cargoes. If we cannot move cargoes by standard gauge trains, then we are not breaking even when it comes to profit-making.”
Also, the Project Manager, Team Construction Company, Precious Ebare said during the oversight visit of the Senate committee that the Customs long room situated on the track was yet to be demolished.
She stressed that some of the contraband goods seized by Customs were on the rail track and slowing the completion of the track to the terminal.
Ebare said that the challenge of insufficient power supply at Ibadan station was also affecting the completion of the rail project.
She pleaded with the committee to use their office to get authorities to improve on power supply, to enable them to finish their project within the scheduled time frame.
The Managing Director of NRC, Engr. Fidel Okhiria, represented by Director Operations of NRC, Niyi Alli, said that the NRC management would have a meeting with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to find solutions to the challenges at the Apapa Port.
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