Emma Okonji
The Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), through its Courier Regulatory Department (CRD), on Wednesday, revoked the operational licences of 11 courier operators for failure to renew their licences for upward of three to four years, despite several warnings from CRD to that effect.
According to NIPOST, the affected courier operators deliberately refused to renew their licences for up to three years and above, to enable them operate under dark cover and indulge in sharp practices of all kinds that are geared towards defrauding innocent customers who patronise them.
Apart from announcing the revocation of their operational licences, CRD also raided three unlicensed courier operators on Wednesday in Lagos, arrested their managers, confiscated some courier items and sealed their offices, for operating without courier licence.
The 11 operators include 21st Century Courier with licence number 356; ABX Air Business Express with licence number 030; Concorde Express with licence number 302; Denca Global Courier with licence number 152; Glintz Express with licence number 321; Maxi Express and Logistics with licence number 194; Saferman Courier with licence number 344; Somadek Global Services with licence number 269; Souche Parcel with licence number 129; Starlite Courier Express with licence number 186 and Urban Rural Courier with licence number 329.
Majority of the operators have their head offices in Lagos, while some of them operate from outside Lagos.
But the three operators that were clamped down operate from Lagos, and they include On-Time Express, located at 14 Adenekan Street, off Oyebajo Street, Fadeyi, Lagos; Integrated Despatch Express (IDX), located at 39 Bode Thomas, Surulere, Lagos and Time Code Services, located at 27/33 Iyun Road, off Western Avenue, Surulere, Lagos.
Assistant General Manager, Licensing and Renewal, CRD, Mr. Dotun Shonde, who led the team, said those raided were operating without licence, which he said, is an offence, punishable by law.
Briefing newsmen shortly after the clampdown, the General Manager, CRD, Mr. Ishaya Diwa said those whose licences have been revoked, cease to operate as courier company in Nigeria and advised Nigerians not to patronise them anymore. “The 11 operators whose licences were revoked, have been operating without renewal of their licences for more than three years and most of them are involved in shady deals that undermine the integrity of the courier sector.
For those that were raided, they were operating without licence and we have the mandate to clamp down on them and to sanitise the industry of quacks who bring disrepute to the courier sector,” Diwa said.
He explained that the unlicensed courier operators, by far outnumbered the licensed operators and that they do everything possible to cut corners and take away jobs from the licensed courier operators.
Head, Ethics and Inspectorate, CRD, Mr. Solomon Olufemi, said “CRD carries out regular training and awareness programme for licenced courier operators, to educate them on ethics of courier business, yet some chose to operate under cover.” He said CRD would go all out to ensure that the courier industry is free from operators with questionable characters.
Items seized from the raid, included dispatch motorcycle, dispatch box, receipt booklets, invoice and registers, which are evidences that they are into courier business without operational licence.
