Over 500 illegal courier and logistics operators are being prosecuted by the police for not obtaining operating licences from the Nigerian Postal Service.
The General Manager of the team from the Courier and Logistics Regulatory Department of NIPOST, Mr Dotun Shonde, disclosed this to The PUNCH on Tuesday, during the clampdown on illegal courier and logistics operators in Ilorin Kwara state.
No fewer than 200 identified operators performing courier services in various parts of the state without licences were arrested, while motorbikes used for the operations were impounded.
Shonde, who said the CLRD team had visited many states to enforce NIPOST Act, disclosed that many of the operators of the courier services in the state were operating illegally without registration with NIPOST, which is the government regulatory agency for such services.
“Similar enforcement activities have been successfully conducted in Rivers, Edo, Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, FCT, Katsina, Niger, Ekiti and Kwara States,” he said.
Shonde said some of the illegal operators had been involved in criminal activities including kidnapping and duping innocent people of their hard-earned resources.
He added that courier and logistics operators were required to register and obtain operating licences from the Federal Government, which were in four categories: state/special SMEs, regional, national and international.
The general manager, who noted that NIPOST had saddled the CLRD with the responsibility of regulating courier and logistics operators, said, “It had begun the clampdown operations on unlicensed/illegal courier, express delivery, dispatch and logistics operators nationwide as stipulated in the statutory provisions of section 43(1,2&3) NIPOST ACT, CAP 127 law of the federation 2004 and Regulatory Operational Guidelines 2020.”
