Emma Okonji
In a bid to sanitise the courier and logistics industry, the Courier and Logistics Regulatory Department (CLRD) of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), last week, raided 28 illegal courier operators in Lagos.
During the raid, the enforcement team comprising of the police from Force Criminal investigation Department (FCID) Alagbon, Ikoyi Lagos, and staff of CLRD, seized several motorbikes and several documents used in carrying out illegal courier operations in Lagos.
The enforcement team carried out the operations on Adeola Odeku road, Victoria Island, Law School Junction and Lekki Penisulla In Lagos State.
The raid was carried out few months after CLRD, in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, embarked on intensive training of licensed courier operators in Lagos, with the plan to extend such training to other states of the federation.
Addressing the media after the successful exercise, the General Manager, CLRD, Mr. Oludotun Gideon Shonde, expressed disappointment over the operations of unlicensed courier operators in Lagos, who operate illegally, despite the efforts of CLRD in sensitising all those involved in courier business in the country, on the need to operate within the ambits of the law guiding courier operations in Nigeria.
Shonde who reiterated the commitment of NIPOST to sanitise the courier industry and to put a stop to all forms of sharp practices that are inimical to courier growth in the country, insisted that the exercise would be an on-going thing that would eventually spread to other states.
He lamented the situation, where the industry is fraught with too many illegal and unlicensed courier operators, adding that CLRD has all the documented proofs of unethical sharp practices nationwide.
He advised the Nigerian public to patronise only licenced operators in order to avoid incessant reported cases of broaching, pilfering, theft, price undercutting, undelivery and loss of customers’ items, emanating from the actions of illegal and unlicensed courier operators.
