The management of the Nigerian Postal Services, NIPOST, has announced that it has launched an investigation into the circumstances leading to the alleged disappearance of an item belonging to a customer.
NIPOST, in a statement by the Director of Communications, Franklin Alao, said on Sunday that the headquarters of the postal agency is aware of the protests by a customer, Mr. Victor Eze, whose item, an iPhone allegedly got missing when the mail arrived at its Asaba office.
“The Postal Master General of the Federation, Dr. Ismail Adebayo Adewusi, upon being notified of the allegation, promptly directed that necessary investigations must be launched to unravel the circumstances and report same.
“Preliminary reports show that on the receipt of the bag containing the item from the Airline Handling Agent, the contents of the bag, of which the item in question was one, were examined.
“The item in question was also examined and assessed in full complement of the assessment team, comprising Nigeria Customs, NDLEA Operatives, Postal Operatives and Security Operatives, etc and the item was found broached.
“Consequently, and in line with postal operational guidelines, a Verification Note was immediately issued to the country of Origin of the item, which is USPS.
“One would have thought the item should have been forwarded for control delivery in which the customer will be invited and informed of the condition the item was received from the originating country and the efforts that are being made to rectify the situation instead of being delivered in that state.
Although, under the Universal Postal Union regulations, the post is not permitted to delay the delivery of a customer’s item, hence the reason the item was forwarded for delivery.
“NIPOST has issued Irregularity Report to USPS and we are waiting for their response.
“The infraction on the item was discovered at the point of assessment by a team comprising some agencies of government at our International Mail Processing Center Ikeja.
“We have gotten in touch with the Customer and NIPOST will do everything within the operational guidelines to protect his interest.”
The statement added that NIPOST has developed a new capacity for responding to such claims by its customers adding that in an age when the agency is leveraging technology to do business, it cannot afford to let its customers down.
“As we are adopting new technology in our operations and seeking new stakeholders in line with the global best practices, we have developed world class response mechanism to ensure that our customers are well served at all times,” the statement added.
Packaged by Alice Egbedele
