Having lived in Europe for 25 years, Siaku Elvis in September 2013, loaded a container with refrigerators, a car, a bus, jewelry and hospital equipment worth over
N33m and shipped it to Lagos.
That was all his years in Europe, his life savings, could buy. It was meant to be part of his retirement plan. He lost his goods after they were auctioned off in a process he described as shoddy and questionable. Angry and frustrated, he now regrets his decision to relocate to Nigeria.
He said: “My shipment got to Lagos on October 14 2013. At the time, my wife and I had some financial problems and could not raise the required funds to clear the container promptly and the container went into overtime. It was later shipped to the Ikorodu Lighter Terminal, enlisted and allocated to some else.
In an attempt to de-list and recover it back, the Area Controller of the ILT, Nasir A., then wrote to the Comptroller General of the NCS, Inde Abdullah, forwarding an application by Siaku’s wife. It read in part: “I hereby forward an application in respect of (1X40FT) container No. MSCU 934259/3. The container was transferred from Tincan Island Port to my command.
All documentations have been completed at Tincan Island Command; payments receipts, import duty waiver and other necessary documents are attached. I hereby recommend for the consignee to be granted overtime cargo clearance.” The document was stamped and received on April 14, 2014.
A letter dated May 28, 2014 and signed by Deputy Comptroller Abutu acknowledged the receipt of the application and gave approval for overtime clearance. But to Elvis surprise, when he presented the said document at the ILT, he was told that his container was no longer there.
While Elvis had been processing the delisting of his consignment, unknown to him, it was already allocated on March 31 2014, to one Isaac John of Ademola Street Lagos for N250k. Elvis now lives on charity from people…. Wt ds, I think Nigeria will conveniently move back to No1 on d list of d most corrupt countries in d world come next year….