Smuggling Cargo Through Courier Shed In MMIA LOS

[AVSEC]

wHAT IS THE NIGERIA CUSTOMS SERVICE DOING?
WHY ARE THEY TURNING A BLIND EYE TO PERSONS WHO ARE CURRENTLY SMUGGLING GENERAL CARGO THROUGH THE COURIER SHED IN MMIA LOS, THEREBY DENYING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA MUCH NEEDED REVENUE FROM DUTY THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN PAID ON THE GENERAL CARGO.
WHAT ARE THE CONTENTS OF THESE HUGE CONSIGNMENTS WHICH ARE PREVENTED FROM BEING SCREENED BY NIGERIA DRUG LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY,NIGERIA BOMB DISPOSAL SQUAD,STATE SECURITY SERVICE AND NIGERIA CUSTOMS SERVICE,SINCE THESE AGENCIES ARE NOT AWARE WHEN THE SMUGGLING IS BEING DONE?
ARE THESE HOW FIRE ARMS AND NARCOTICS ARE SMUGGLED INTO NIGERIA?
THE MMIA COURIER SHED MUST BE MONITORED CLOSELY.
CAN ANY OF YOU NIGERIANS WITH INFLUENCE PASS THIS DELICATE INFORMATION ON SO THAT SAFETY AND SECURITY WITHIN THE NIGERIA STATE IS ASSURED?:eek::confused:
ITS AMAZING WHATS ALLOWED TO GO ON IN WEST AFRICA ISNT IT?

[Need to Know Basis]

I am unsure how to take your post ? General Cargo being manifested as Courier has been going on for years ?

I`d be looking at Customs in the Courier facility if i was you. Its easily stopped. So why does Customs let it carry on ?

[forkingfishing]

welcome to the wild wild west....

[AVSEC]

Its a shame this is going on.
Courier cannot weigh more than 50kg.
If general cargo is manifested as courier and passed through the courier shed,then Nigeria loses vast sums in revenue which would have been used in upgrading the facilities.
If African Aviation is to succeed,and Nigeria realise its full potential as the West African hub,then this travesty must be stopped immediately.
Who is responsible for proper manifesting of courier and cargo?
That is where the investigation must also reach.
Who is facilitating this illegality in MMIA LOS and why do they get away with it unchecked?

[Flightsimman]

Safety and Security ???

You must be bloody joking right??

Does this mean that we don't have to travel around Nigeria using armored escort anymore??

:confused:

[Revnetwork]

Sorry for the thread drift.

Flightsimman,

I have heard the same statement you've just made hundreds of times and finally decided it's time to reply.

1) I accept that Nigeria ( and in this sense, I mean the whole country although some parts are safer than others) is not the safest in the world.
2) I accept that most flight crew and other foreigners arriving into the country transit between the airport and their hotels using armed escort.
3) Nigeria's "security" problem is not worse than most countries, so long as you keep out of troublesome areas.

After acknowledging the above statements, let me state the following

1) Nigeria is not any more dangerous than most other countries out there.
2) Most flight crew move about using armed escorts because of a "perceived" security threat and because that's the only way their airlines/employers will convince them to come.
Please note:

There are at least a thousand times the number of flight crew who are expatriates/foreigners etc who live and move about quite freely without the need for armed escorts. In terms of business, this place is an expatriates "manna" which is why they come (oil, manufacturing, banking, aviation) you name it. If the place was as unsafe and dangerous as a lot of people have said, then we would be hearing of daily killings and muggings of all the foreigners (and locals) who go about their business within the country. I work for an employer in Nigeria where there is a high number of expatriate staff who live in homes/flats/hotels and have no need for armed escorts during the daily course of business.
Our security department gives us advise on areas to avoid etc just as a normal sensible person would in EVERY country in the world. We do have the option of calling for armed escorts if we are venturing to/through those areas especially at night time. I also use this service, not necessarily because anything will happen to me (as the chances something will happen to me out of the hundreds of other people) but because my company demands it when I go to certain places.

There is a vibrant nightlife in Lagos and if it's so bad, I wonder how myself and my mates could have gone/seen all the places we did in Lagos without armed escorts.

I said "perceived" security threat above because maybe next time during one of your "armed" trips around Lagos or any other city in Nigeria, if you looked at the occupants of some vehicles, or on the streets in parts of Victoria Island you must notice quite a few "expats". Have you ever wondered how come they can walk the streets safely when you needed an escort? When I arrived here a couple of years ago, my colleagues and I also had the same ideas as you through stories handed down over the years in the same manner you are now doing.

I'm sick and tired of hearing the same old regurgitated bull**** being repeated and had to reply. "IT'S BETTER TO EXPERIENCE SOMETHING YOURSELF THAN LISTEN TO A THOUSAND STORIES"

Cheers

[AAL]

Why bother going to the trouble to consign and smuggle general cargo through the Courier Shed when everybody knows that with the right connections and amount of dollars cash, time of day (or rather evening) - it can go through the normal cargo terminal and procedure.

Wake up chaps, this is Africa - anything goes for the right price!

[anjouan]

Revnetwork,

In reply to your thread drift, it's obvious you live and work in Lagos where the major security threat is possibly no worse than many of the world's major cities and the main threat is from armed robbers. However, you are totally incorrect if you try to apply your statements to the Niger Delta area where a huge number of expatriates try to keep oil extraction going to fuel the beasts you manage.

Farct;

Nigeria's oil production is now less than that of Angola and will soon be less than that of Libya. Why is this? Because terrorist activities in the Niger Delta have shut down so much oil production. Since the commencement of so-called democratic rule in this country more than 14,000 people have been murdered. The human rights organisation, Amnesty International in its State of the World’s Human Rights Report 2008 released in Abuja, states that in Nigeria, the military, police, other security forces, and militants in the Niger Delta, were fingered as being behind the hundreds of extrajudicial execution that took place in 2007. It said over 200 persons, including journalists, were killed before, during, and after the April and May general election. Parts of the report on Nigeria read,

”Members of the police and security forces extra-judicially executed hundreds of people in 2007.

”These included killings by police during routine road checks or for refusing to pay a bribe, shootings of suspected armed robbers on arrest, and extrajudicial executions of detainees in police stations.

“The military were also frequently involved in extrajudicial executions, especially in the Niger Delta.

You state:

There are at least a thousand times the number of flight crew who are expatriates/foreigners etc who live and move about quite freely without the need for armed escorts. In terms of business, this place is an expatriates "manna" which is why they come (oil, manufacturing, banking, aviation) you name it. If the place was as unsafe and dangerous as a lot of people have said, then we would be hearing of daily killings and muggings of all the foreigners (and locals) who go about their business within the country. I work for an employer in Nigeria where there is a high number of expatriate staff who live in homes/flats/hotels and have no need for armed escorts during the daily course of business.
Our security department gives us advise on areas to avoid etc just as a normal sensible person would in EVERY country in the world. We do have the option of calling for armed escorts if we are venturing to/through those areas especially at night time. I also use this service, not necessarily because anything will happen to me (as the chances something will happen to me out of the hundreds of other people) but because my company demands it when I go to certain places.


A thousand times the number of expatriates..... :yuk: The reason the majority of the expatriate pilots who are here have escorts (and that by the way is helicopter pilots as there are more than 60 helicopters flying in this country) is that it's the only way that most employers can get the necessary insurance on them because of the real danger of being kidnapped on the way to work, or from their place of residence or being hijacked during the course of their daily work. Have you ever been kidnapped or hijacked? I have, and it's a frightening experience. I am still here because I love this country. However, unlike you, I recognise that it is a dangerous place to live and work for many expatriates in the oil producing areas. With my company, we can move around Lagos without escort, but out in the swamps of the Delta, it would be a foolish man who thinks he can travel for long without escort and without one day being subjected to the risk of a kidnap. If most companies did not provide these facilities in the oil-producing areas it's not a case of pilots not coming, but of their insurance cover being invalidated.

[chuks]

You really need to experience being shot at in Lagos before you can understand all those bullsh*t stories about being able to move about freely there without having to worry about armed robbers.

It is like a lot of things there, such as using the humble pedestrian crosswalk, just a matter of the odds. It is not that every trip into town is going to see a gun attack, just that that such an event is a known risk of life there in the "Center of Excrement."

Until it happens you get this attitude, pooh-poohing the risk of being out and about in Lagos. Right up there with that is having a local girl-friend, another aspect of life in Lagos that is there to be enjoyed if you don't think it's too risky.

Does Lufthansa still shuttle their crews over to one of the neighbour countries for their lay-overs because of the perceived risks of Lagos or have they taken this advice from our local expert at face value?

[flux]

I can tell Chucks has been there :ok: I also think it is an absolute dump, and frankly would rather stick a fork in my eye than venture out on the streets!

[Engine Noise]

Flux wrote:
I can tell Chucks has been there I also think it is an absolute dump, and frankly would rather stick a fork in my eye than venture out on the streets!
I had wanted to ignore this post but when i saw your location (SA) i could not help stop laughing:} I tell you what, you guys have a more serious, endemic and cancerous problem at hand XENOPHOBIA and no amount of money or inducement will make me visit your own "absolute dump". I do not want to be skinned or burnt alive mate:sad:. So, Flux, go tell your brothers that killing foreigners is not good instead of coming here to call lagos a dump. SA needs all the help it can get now.

[AVSEC]

Anyone out there with influence,help stop the smuggling of general cargo via the courier shed,losing Nigeria vast sums which would have been realised via statutory duty payments.
This is economic sabotage of an African nation struggling against the odds to build a thriving cargo aviation hub for west Africa.
Help save African Aviation industry.

[chuks]

You are asking people here to stop something that is happening with the co-operation of people in authority in Nigeria. You know as well as anyone how the system there works, when either we small fish turn a blind eye to things or else have bad things happen. Over the years a whole system of corruption has been built up and allowed to flourish to the point where it is very deeply entrenched.

Are you aware of the story of the reporters getting the secretary of a previous anti-corruption official on their hidden camera demanding a bribe to get them an appointment with his boss? No? How about the way that Financial Times reporter was given 24 hours to leave after he did some reporting about the un-economics of Ikot Abasi? Missed that one too? Okay, how about the economics of the funding for Arik Airlines? Not exactly transparent, eh?

Anyone who spends much time at all in Nigeria, unless he is brain-dead, quickly gets and keeps the idea that it is one place that runs on "dash" and learns how to live with that or else heads off to greener pastures.

Every so often something happens that really gets people's attention. For instance a local company got into big trouble with the American authorities, the Securities Exchange Commission, in a roundabout way. They were clearing their goods through MMA by bribing the Customs people, as they had done for years. Well, there are very strict American laws that prohibit U.S.-traded companies from paying bribes, "commissions" and what-not.

Ever wonder why European companies often do so much better selling their aircraft in Africa when the obvious choice might be a North American product? These laws might have something to do with that.

In the case I mentioned when the news finally worked its way back to the S.E.C. the poo hit the fan. That one was an exception, though. Generally everyone accepts that there is a way to get things done in Nigeria that involves making "friends" with the man who can give you that all-important clearance. Then there is some huge scandal or not, when your friend packs out to his palace in the bush and you have to make a new friend, installed in the name of fighting corruption! The racists among us are happy because it just "proves" that Nigerians are all corrupt, the big men are happy because nothing much changes, some of the little people get their spare parts or whatever... It is only people like us who are vaguely upset about what is going on there, but just how do we expect to see things change? Look at what happened in Ghana for one possible solution, but that is a very risky way to go.

I remember very well how one of my local colleagues was very happy with "I.B.B." coming in to restore honesty in government and chase off all those corrupt civilians, when we all know how that story ended! You might hope for a Rawlings and get an Abacha.

I am well out of Nigeria now but I still get reminders; many people here have worked there, including some who were kidnapped in the Delta. Well, the "oil patch" is not such a big place; I have even had passengers who used to fly with me into Warri Airstrip in a Twin Otter or into Osubi in a Dornier, when we will talk a bit about what is going on now in Nigeria. We all agree that it is a real shame, yes, but nobody sees a way out. The curse is all that oil money flowing in, enough to support this culture of thievery that has given the country a world-wide lousy reputation. After a while people get tired of all this palaver about the potential and just look at the reality, or just look away. There is no one here with the power to change anything, or am I missing something?

As to that other thing; the people in South Africa persecuting the foreigners are not the ones posting here. It is a typical Nigerian response to ignore whatever is wrong at home and point the finger elsewhere. That you have the ragamuffins at the bottom of South African society doing black-on-black violence... what does that have to do with what educated ones write about Nigeria? At least the ANC is making some feeble efforts to address their problem; can you show us where the rulers of Nigeria are doing something about this corruption?

Last I read, the (effective) head of the anti-corruption unit in Nigeria was invited to take off for London and make way for someone else; maybe I am a racist but I got the idea they want someone who will play along rather than really do his job.

By the way: I wouldn't agree that Lagos is an "absolute dump." What it is, is very, very unsafe! Well, I just have that opinion because I almost was shot by robbers there but that is just me... On the other hand, back home in Germany I have lots of paintings done by a young Nigerian artist, something to remind me of one of the positive parts of Nigeria: the sunshine, youth and enthusiasm for life that you can find there.

Where I work now, the nearest town really IS an absolute dump, just a sandy, crappy mess, the sort of place people live just because they have to, without loving it at all, unless I am missing something there. A glass of tea on a terrace is about it for fun. On the other hand, it is relatively safe. You might get your pocket picked or your bag stolen from your car if you don't lock it in the boot but gun attacks are unknown. I can drive into town for a haircut or to do some shopping and not worry about having that random, unlucky encounter with some gun thugs, something that was always in the front of my mind in Lagos.

[africa man]

perhaps avsec needs to go on a route trip down to lagos, i often work on the ramp in lagos and moving cargo through the sheds is more difficult to do the correct way with all the red tape, the reason why all the systems keep changing in los is the fact that every now and then the auth have a clear out of all the high officals in the customs office that have been taking bribes and kick backs, then a new person arrvs on the sceen, and puts in new procedures and then all the chaos starts again with back logs through the sheds untill again they get used to the system and then its back to normal,this practice has been going on for years and will never change while you have offices taking a liking to the green back....

[UN-Coordinated]

One of the reasons the courier business in Nigeria is so big is that to import commercial cargo using the normal methods – form M etc - is such a cumbersome affair. It’s not all about avoiding import duties, in a lot of cases its to save time, and as we all know time is money.

Courier companies pay a fixed fee per kilo to Nigerian customs “as agreed”. It is then up to the Customs to pick packages at random and determine if they want to inspect the cargo and documents or just be happy with the “as agreed” sum. Maybe the "as agreed" rate is set too low ?

Non-document consignments are supposed to be accompanied with invoices showing values etc.

I am sure the major players in any attempt to disrupt the peace in Nigeria would not be using courier companies to import their weapons, explosives etc. You could charter a private jet to do that !

Maybe the Comptroller is in bed with the courier companies ??

[B Sousa]

Nigeria loses vast sums in revenue which would have been used in upgrading the facilities.


More likely than not, filling someones pocket..............:ugh:

[Flightsimman]

REVNETWORK...

I understand what you are saying and didn't mean to be disrespectful to your country and it's people.

I am just stating the "plain facts" on what I have seen during my two trips to Nigeria (Lagos and Southern Delta).

I believe that security is indeed a major issue in your country which will only get worse without serious government intervention (they need to "remove" all the fraudsters first of all and elect people that are serious about the future of your country and it's great people).

I would like nothing more than going for a walk down the road to one of the villages and eat and drink with the locals (this is not possible at the moment due to the sad security issues which is such a shame).

It sounds rather stupid, but I believe Nigeria would be better off without the oil industry as I think this is causing more problems than rewards.

I just pray that one day your country and it's people will be able to live in peace, safety and happiness without corruption as this is what they deserve.


:ok: