Illegal Charges: ANCLA vows To Seek Legal Action Against Foreign Airlines

By Chuks Okoh
The Association of Licensed Customs Agent ( ANCLA) Wednesday vowed to seek redress in court over the collection of illegal charges by international cargo airlines flying into Nigeria, describing the action of the carriers as an avenue to steal money from Nigerian operators .
The body said it would enlist the global partner : World Customs Brokers Organisation to press charges against the foreign carriers which are exploiting spurious excuses to extort money from cargo agents in Nigeria.
Speaking after clearing agents staged a protest to bring to a close the nine days of withdrawal of service at the Lagos Airport, the national president if ANCLA , Prince Olayiwola Shittu said the cargo airlines were acting against the regulations of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA), which since 2011 cautioned the carriers against collecting the illegal charges from clearing agents .
Shittu said the so called consolidated charges introduced by the cargo airlines was a ploy to extort money from cargo agents saying it is against global best practices to collect such charges.
While describing the collection of the charges as scam, he said the agents have resolved to resume cargo clearance to reduce loss of revenue to government and other agencies , affirming that the resumed operations will be without recourse to the airlines.
In the early hours of today , the Murtala Mohammed International Airport,MMIA, Lagos members of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, staged a peaceful protest around the complex over the imposition of consolidated charges by Association of Foreign Airlines Representatives in Nigeria, ANLCA members returned to work after a meeting with major stakeholders inthe Nigerian aviation industry, which include : the Nigerian CustomsService, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, the State Security Service, SSS, and the leadership of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, at the headquarters of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company of Nigeria, NAHCo, Plc.
The placards carried by Members of the association bore various inscriptions including : ‘Foreign airlines stop milking Nigerians, ‘ No more charges for all the airlines, ‘ don’t kill cargo business in Nigeria,’ ‘say no to illegal charges’ and ‘foreign airlines are stealing from our economy’ among many others, insisted that the charges amounted to double taxation on the clearing agents.
Shittu said the strike action by his members was called off after a closed door meeting with the stakeholders at the headquarters of NAHCo.
He however insisted that clearing agents would no longer pay the charges, which he described as arbitrary, warning that any attempt to further impose the charges on its members would be kicked against.
He alleged that the illegal collection had been on for almost two decades and would no longer be tolerated.
He explained that the charges vary from one airline to the other, but noted that not all foreign carriers were involved in the collection.
He said, “The foreign airlines have been using Nigerians to commit scam by collecting money illegally. They collect money several billions of Naira on a daily basis under the guise of documentation.
‘As at 2011, NCAA wrote these airlines that the money was illegal and asked them to reverse it, but unfortunately, the agency did not enforce the order and this was due to Nigerian factor. So, we decided to sacrifice by not operating in the last nine days now. The Federal Government is losing money, the agencies are losing money too and several other organisations.
We cannot continue with illegality in the system. A time will come when we have to protest and that is what we are doing now.”