The Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) at the weekend sealed off no fewer than five courier and logistic firms for allegedly operating without registration and licence in Edo State.
The agency also seized not fewer than eight courier and logistic delivery motorcycles during the clamp-down exercise.
Speaking to journalists during the exercise, NIPOST General Manager, Courier, Logistic and Regulatory Department , Mr. Shonde Gideon, said the exercise was to sanitize the postal market space by getting rid of those operating unprofessionally and engaging in unethical practices.
He explaind that there are lots of unlicensed and illegal courier, express, delivery, dispatch, and logistic operators operating in the country.
He said the industry has been proliferated and infiltrated with many unlicensed and illegal operators who engaged in all kinds of nefarious and unethical activities.
These, the NIPOST boss, said include price undercutting, pilfering, broaching, loss and dumping of customers’ items, poaching and subletting of operating licence, no traceable address or registered brand name, among others.
He explained that it is also a crime against the state to operate in a space that is regulated without registration and licence.
He also noted that the clampdown is in line with the statutory provision of Section 43(1, 2and 3), NIPOST ACT, Cap127, LFN 2004, and Regulatory Operational Guide 2023.
He noted that the overall objective of the exercise was to bring out the ethical value in the postal business, as some operators were carrying overweighed items, prohibited items such as cocaine, small arms and ammunition among others.
According to him, the exercise also aimed at blocking economic leakage because an operator without a licence is not paying tax and is unknown to the government.
The NPOST manager, however, appealed to courier operators to comply with the law and obtain a grant of operating licence from NIPOST as stipulated by the extant laws or face the full wrath of the law.
