EFCC SEALS PARTNERSHIP DEAL WITH NCJTFLCA TO TACKLE CORRUPTION IN THE PORT INDUSTRY
By Mcanthony Onuoha
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has sealed a partnership deal with National Compliance Joint Taskforce of Licensed Clearing Agents- (NCJTFLCA) to tackle corruption in the ports industry.
(Acting Zonal Director of Lagos Zonal Directorate, ACE 1 Ahmed Muhammad Ghali)
The Joint Taskforce team led by its National President, Dr. Basil Chudi Nwolisa, on Tuesday, 6th of May, 2025, paid an official visit to the Lagos Zonal Directorate on 2,Okotie- Eboh Avenue, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Nwolisa and his team were received by the Acting Zonal Director of the Lagos Zonal Directorate, ACE 1, Ahmed Muhammad Ghali, and his team.
In his address, the President of NCJTFLCA, Dr. Basil Nwolisa, thanked the organization for opening its arms to welcome the group. He stated that the group’s would focus on
Enhancing Compliance and Combating Economic Crimes in freight forwarding and Logistics Sector in Nigeria.
(President of NCJTFLCA, Dr. Basil Chudi Nwolisa, speaking during the visit)
He stated that National Compliance Joint Taskforce of Licensed Agents was a registered freight forwarding and transport logistics advocacy group whose aims and objectives includes to contribute its quota to the sanitization of the sector to enhance revenue collection by government, thereby raising the reputation of its members by promoting integrity and transparency in the sector.
He disclosed that the major objective of their visit was
to explore areas of cooperation and partnership between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the National Compliance Joint Taskforce of Licensed Clearing Agents. Some of the key points of the visit was the introduction of the group and its mission which is
“to promote compliance in Nigeria’s freight forwarding, packaging, transport, and logistics sectors.”
He went ahead to list some of the major challenges
faced by the industry, which includes economic and financial crimes, and the need for effective regulation and compliance.
Furthermore, he stressed potential areas of cooperation
between the EFCC and the National Compliance Joint Taskforce, such as Information sharing and intelligence gathering, Joint training and capacity building programs, Development of compliance guidelines and best practices, Investigation and prosecution of economic crimes in the logistics sector.
Nwolisa also listed some benefits expected of the partnership to include: Enhanced compliance and reduced economic crimes,
Improved industry reputation and credibility,
Increased efficiency and effectiveness in combating economic crimes.
Welcoming the group, the Acting Zonal Director of the Lagos Zonal Directorate, Ahmed Muhammad Ghali (ACE 1), appreciated them for the august visit,
saying that one of the core values of the Commission was collaboration. He assured the Joint Task Force of the readiness of the organization to work with its members to drastically reduce corrupt practices in the Port industry to the barest minimum.
According to Ghali, “the perception foreigners have about us is one of the things that is militating against the attraction of foreign investments to this country. If they know that you are a Nigerian, they begin to apply serious caution while dealing with you, that has continued to discourage business people to come here and do business. Even from the entrance, they would start having nasty experiences, they have not even entered, whether at the Airports or Border Stations, they must encounter some corrupt personnel. And once that impression is created by the very first persons they meet at entry points, they run away and decide never to come back again. And those they know that are planning to come here to invest, they discourage them from doing so.”
“Corruption has a lot of adverse effects on our economy, and the only way we can win this fight is by information gathering and sharing. And we can assure you that whatever information we get from your group will be diligently followed to the later. We are not going to take this partnership for granted. We will always make sure that we do the right thing. This your call is a very noble one, and we are ready to support you. We are always looking for who and who are behind all the atrocities happening in this country, and you know that we are not God neither are we are magicians. There are a lot of things we can not unearth without your collaboration, we work with vital and verifiable information, we can assure you that we are ready.
No matter how big and influential the person is, in as much as he is on the other side of the law, we will get him to give account of his atrocities, and we will make sure we put him where he belongs and will serve as a deterrent to others. We will do everything to make sure we protect anyone that shares information of corrupt practices with us, and we will make sure that their business are not being affected because we are not here to destroy any body, including the culprits. What we are after is rehabilitation, making our system work and making our organization responsible and law abiding. We don’t destroy, we rehabilitate .we make sure every body is following due process, doing the right thing for the good of our nation.”
“Once we say compliance, we must know what and what to comply with, we need to lay so much emphasis on this compliance. Most people know the right things to do but they don’t do them, so we need to deal with that, and make sure we educate people. We don’t know it all, l know that there are certain procedures in freight forwarding that are not known to us, and we are not Customs officers either. What we want is a functional group like yours that will help make Port users comply with the rules and regulations. So we have to start by sensitizing the people, which l believe, is very important.
“This visit is the beginning of the collaboration, and l can assure you that we are ready to work with you. You have a limitation, so also does the commission. It is only when we put heads together that we can achieve a whole lot. We are going to come up with modalities to achieve this, and it will cover Airports Seaports and Border Stations. We have a lot to do, and all what l want is commitment and sincerity of purpose. Let us work with that sense of responsibility and we have no doubt that you are people of integrity, and also patriotic Nigerians because if you are not, you would not have come up with this idea.”
“I assure you that if we get it right, we would have written our names in gold. This collaboration we have just started here can go beyond the country, if we do it with commitment and with every sense of responsibility. We have hundreds of porous Borders, and l want to urge us to face the ones that are within our reach.”
“On behalf of our Chairman, Olanipeku Olukayode, and the entire Management Team and personnel of the organization, l want to thank you all for coming.”
Among the EFCC team were: ACE II Moses Oguzi, Head Investigations,
ACE 1 Orhioghene Adewumi, A.g Head Legal & Prosecutions,
ACE II Church Hill Torrru, Head, Extractive Industry Fraud Section, ACE II Richard Adejumo, Head, Foreign Exchange Malpractice Section,
ACE II Tolulola Tola-Ukabam, Head, Intelligence,
ACE II ABBA Sambo, Head, Advanced Fee Fraud, ACE II Joshua Oloye, Head of Forensic Department, ACE II Dolapo Adeniran, Head, Administration, ACE II Babatunde Sulaiman, Head, Public Affairs, and
ACE II kelvin Ighomuaye, Head, CTGI.
In his vote thanks, the Legal Advisor of NCJTFLCA, Barr. Barnabas Okoro, thanked the organization for a warm welcome, and expressed readiness to work with the commission, especially, in the areas of information gathering and sharing, saying that the major objective of the National Compliance Joint Taskforce was to actualize a corrupt free port industry.
In conclusion, Dr Nwolisa reiterated that
the National Compliance Joint Taskforce of Licensed Clearing Agents was committed to promoting compliance and fighting economic crimes in Nigeria’s logistics sector.
” We believe that partnering with the EFCC will enable us to achieve our goals more effectively and contribute to the overall development of the industry and by so doing, adding value to the renewed hope agenda of Mr. president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, not only to Nigeria but also to the comity of Nations,” he stated.
