The Founder, National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Boniface Aniebonam, who sounded the note of warning to the Federal Government to shut down all commercial activities in the Custom Ports of the sea and air to save the lives of Nigerian.
In an interview with him he said
”There is no gainsaying the fact that the sea and air ports are the gate ways of the nations economy. Under the circumstance we have found our selves the rising cases of covid- 19 in LAGOS is enough for government to realise that the SEAPORTS and AIRPORTS must be shutdown immediately till further notice”.
This is because there is nothing more than the lives of citizens. It is even constitutional that the primary responsibility of the GOVERNMENT is to protect the lives and properties of citizens. In this regard and inline with the directive of the the federal GOVERNMENT with regard to vessels approaching NIGERIA at the moment such vessels can still be allowed to come in under strict conditions of the rules of engagement. It is to advise that in other to avoid port congestion the outer TERMINALS and or any other dedicated area can be used to warehouse the containers and or any other type of goods. Therefore the need for the transportation minister and Finance minister to set up a special taskforce to undertake such responsibility can not be OVEREMPHASISED.
It is also important that LAGOS state and other affected states at the moment should consider imposition of curfew . The government of NIGERIA is being advised to take strict measures right now because we do not have facilities for cushon the consequences of the ongoing spread . This again to add we could not take early measures when it started in China.