By ZAKAA LAZARUS, ABUJA
An Indian business man based in Lagos, Satiya Prabhu Lal has dragged a Nigerian shipping company, Maerskline to the police alleging that his container with goods worth over $120,891 with bill of landing was fraudulently moved out of Apapa Port and auctioned without notifying him.
He further alleged that the company continued to extort millions of naira from him even after they auctioned the container with goods to another auctioneer in Abuja.
The business man who petitioned the Assistant Inspector General of Police in charge of Operations at the Maritime Command, Force headquarters annex, Kam Selem House, Moloney street, Lagos alleged that in the month of February, 2024, he brought in 1/20 feet container into Nigeria with No. MSKU – 7934545 valued $120,891 with bill of lading No. 233042669 at the Apapa Port, Lagos and engaged the services of LATEPO Nigeria Enterprises to clear the container.
According him, he paid the sum of N3, 167,350.00 as demurrage to Maerskline Company through his agent in person of Mr. Adeyemi Isaac and later, a delivery order was issued by the company to release the container but it was discovered that the said container was placed on hold.
He was told to pay additional charges of N104, 597.00 to revalidate the delivery order.
“After the payment of the additional charges the second delivery order was issued to hin on November 22, 2024 unknown to the complainant, another delivery order was issued to one auctioneer on November 19th, 2024 by the same Maerskline shipping company.
Finally, when the complainant got to Apapa Port on November 23, 2024, a day after he received the delivery order, he discovered that the container has been fraudulently moved out of the port to unknown destination.”
Police sources said after detectives conducted investigations into the complaint, it was revealed that the container shipped from India and arrived Nigeria by KSS Syntex Private Limited through Maerskline shipping company to Apapa Port, Lagos but after all necessary payments and documentations by the Indian business man, the container was nowhere to be seen and the shipping company could not give satisfactory account of the whereabouts of the container.
It was learned that investigations later revealed that the container was auctioneered by the custom auction office in Abuja and allocated to another auctioneer. Investigation also discovered that the custom auction office in Abuja communicated to the shipping company on the 31st October, 2024 after the container was auctioned.
Detectives discovered also that despite custom auction letter, the shipping company concealed the information and deliberately refused to inform the Indian business man but rather conspired and fraudulently continued to receive payments for demurrage worth millions from the businessman and at the same time issued a fake releasing order to him.
The sources further stated that specifically, the sum of N76,271.00 was first paid as demuragge to the company by the complainant on July 19th, 2024 while another sum of N100.000.00 was paid few months later.
Later, according the sources, on November 14, 2024, the sum of N2,991,888.00 was also paid as demurrage by the complainant to the same company and he was issued with a releasing order same day but the company later placed it on hold after which he was asked to pay additional charges of N104,597.00.
When contacted on phone, a source at the company identified simply as Gbenga told our reporter;”
The Indian business man abandoned his container for ten months and at the expiration of the period, Customs auctioned it through another auctioneer in Abuja. What we did was to simply hand over the items to the auctioneer after we got the customs papers.
The business man should face Customs not our company. When police came into the case, we graciously offered to refund him the money he paid for the demurrage to the tune of N3m but he refused to accept it. Rather, he continued to boast that he will destroy the name of the company in newspapers and online. Our legal team is handling the case.
