The Nigerian Postal Services (NIPOST) has said that unregistered courier operators have become a tool in trafficking illicit drugs in Nigeria.
The Postmaster General of the Federation, Dr Ismail Adewusi, who disclosed this during interaction with journalists in Abuja, said there is an ongoing clampdown on such operators in the country.
He said the clampdown started in Lagos to Abuja and other major cities, while licences of operations have been issued to duly registered courier operators who operate legally, Nigerian Tribune reports.
“One of the things we have done to enforce compliances with the regulations is to clamp down on illegal courier businesses because part of the powers of NIPOST under the regulation is to ensure that all illegal operators are phased out and stopped from polluting the business environment of people that are formally and lawfully engaged with licences to operate in the sector.
He further stated that, “This is going to be a continuous process, Nigeria is very vast, there is no way we can do this all at once, what we have done is to start from places where we have noticed this, there are so many of them in the major capital cities of Nigeria.
“We started from Lagos, we have been to Abuja, we are going to Benin, this year, we are going to continue with other states.
The Postmaster general assured that, “We are determined to ensure that full compliance is achieved and nobody will be parading the streets anywhere in Nigeria without a licence and he is operating a courier service, that will not be acceptable.
“When we allow that to happen, a lot of implications are there, many of the illegal courier services are used as an avenue to carry illicit drugs.”
He said NIPOST had forwarded the list of registered courier operators to NDLEA so that in the course of discharging their duties, they can easily spot the unregistered operators.
