00:00Recently, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Nigerian Police Force, the legal state government, and other key stakeholders in the maritime
00:06sector convened to address issues around extortion, illegal checkpoints at the nation's port, affecting cargo movement and the ease of
00:16doing business at the port.
00:18At the meeting, they resolved to establish a joint tax force to address this issue.
00:23But this is not the first tax force established by these agencies. In fact, in 2016, we had the Nigerian
00:30Ports Authority, Western Ports Intervention Committee to check cases of extortion of truck drivers by security operatives.
00:37We also had the legal state government police, LASMA, FRSC, MPA set up a joint security tax force in 2018.
00:44The port standing task team was set up in 2021 to remove illegal checkpoints on the port access rules.
00:51In 2023, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economies Committee was set up to review extortions and illegal checkpoints.
00:58However, truckers continued to face harassment and intimidation from non-state actors and unauthorized state actors who forced them to
01:05pay before accessing the ports.
01:07Holiday operators routinely spent between $150,000 and $250,000 per trip on unauthorized payments to navigate these illegal checkpoints.
01:15Unfortunately, all the government agencies deny deploying officials to those areas where the number of checkpoints have increased,
01:23wanting that any officer caught would face the law.
01:26Yet, to this day, no officer has been apprehended or sanctioned.
01:30Instead, the illegal checkpoints continue to multiply.
01:33It's obvious that the constant establishment of task force is not addressing the issue.
01:38Stakeholders are calling for more viable practical approach to address it.
01:45The
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