Some experts in the maritime industry have urged the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to use sniffer dogs in cargo/container examination.
They said that in doing so the search for contraband drugs at Nigerians ports would be easier and time-saving.
The experts told the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos on the sidelines of an Interactive Stakeholders Meeting with NDLEA that the manual system was time-wasting and ineffectual.
Isdore Martin-Agoha, a top official of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agent, ANLCA, said that by its nature the maritime business was time-bound, hence the longer the delay in cargo examination, the higher the demurrage charges.
“To help us, the agency should as a matter of urgency adopt the use of sniffer dogs in the administration and examination of containers for drugs.
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“The use of manual search whereby a whole container with a variety of goods in it will nearly be emptied in the search for drug substance is old-fashioned and should be discarded,” he said.
According to him, the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, has sniffer dogs that could be used in the examination of cargoes and containers to search for drugs and narcotics.
That, he said, would save port users a lot of time and high demurrage costs.
Similarly, a seasoned customs broker, Alade Adelusi, said that with sniffer dogs, 20 containers could be examined for drugs within ten minutes unlike the subsistence practice where officers toiled for days in search of drugs in containers.
Adelusi, an ANLCA Tin Can Island Port Committee Chairman of Terminal Operations and Cargo Clearing, said that grey administrative areas should be addressed for trade to not only forge on but have a meaningful impact.
NAN
