Yesterday, during a raid on illegal checkpoints on the Seme-Badagry Expressway, police officers who are thought to be part of the Inspector General of Police’s (IGP) Special Squad arrested some police officers and NIS agents, causing chaos and confusion along the highway.
According to information provided to Vanguard, the IGP squad pursued and detained certain police officers and other security personnel that were thought to have been stationed only for the purpose of extortion.
The recent meeting between the IGP, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, and Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, and their intention to clear the axis, which acts as the Lagos-Abidjan corridor of unlawful checkpoints, may not be unrelated to the event.
In addition to the bad reputation the country receives in the eyes of the regional and continental community, the actions of the unlawful checkpoints have caused a variety of disruptions in the movement of products and persons, and are thought to have hampered trade facilitation.
According to information obtained by our correspondent, the raid will continue until all of the bad actors within the relevant organizations that are to blame for the blight have been entirely eliminated by sanctions and punishments.
In response to the development, maritime stakeholders applauded the IGP for starting the axis cleanup and urged him to carry out the effort all the way to the end, until the axis is clear of all illegal checkpoints.
They also pleaded with the CGC and IGP to include maritime police officers in the clean-up because they, too, have allegedly become a hindrance to lawful commerce and trade facilitation.
An anonymous Seme-based customs broker who talked to Vanguard about the threat the police command poses to trade said: “The maritime police command has subsequently usurped part of the customs work by blocking manifests. They mandate that shipping companies withhold manifests, and these habits have ingrained themselves.
They even seize containers from the side of the road and transport them to their facilities near Obalande. We need the IGP’s searchlight to be directed here as well. At the maritime command, there is a lot of extortion taking place. They need to be stopped from taking over the role of customs and should be fighting marine offenses.
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