The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)

  • Customs destroy trailer load of imported poultry worth of N35m

    Customs destroy trailer load of imported poultry worth of N35m

    The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Owerri has destroyed goods with duty pad value of N35 million contained in a 1x40ft trailer.

    Mr Bukar Amajam, the Customs Area Controller in the zone, who spoke to journalists in Owerri on Tuesday at the scene of the destruction, said his officers had been on the trail of the truck for three weeks following a tip off.

    He said his men finally tracked down the vehicle at a stadium in Owerri, Imo capital, last Sunday when all the items were confiscated with the help of sister agencies like NAFDAC, the Police and the Army.

    Amajam expressed regret that in spite of efforts by customs to check smuggling, people still were still bent on making quick money even at the detriment of other peoples’ live.

    He said that the danger inherent in the consumption of imported poultry chicken included damage to human body organs.

    “This 1×40 ft trailer load of frozen imported chicken is a huge loss to the owner.

    “The danger in imported frozen chicken is the mode of preservation which is dangerous for human consumption. The chemical content used for the preservation can be dangerous to health,” he said.

    The comptroller commended the sister agencies for their collaboration and pledged to continue to work with them to rid the state of smugglers.

    Amajam said his men were better equipped, motivated and trained to track down smugglers and their collaborators at anytime and anywhere.

    He advised smugglers to desist from the nefarious duties at they would always regret their actions.

    NAN reports that the 1×40 trailer load contained thousands of bags of frozen chicken which had already started decomposing.

  • ICPC recovers N.325m for defrauded job-seeker

    ICPC recovers N.325m for defrauded job-seeker

    The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says it has recovered the sum of N325,000 lost by a job seeker, Innocent Okpanachi, to a fraudster in 2013.

    In a statement on Monday, the spokesperson of the ICPC, Mrs Rasheedat Okoduwa, said the commission had returned the money to Okpanachi.

    Okoduwa said that Okpanachi was defrauded by one Mohammed Habib, who posed as a senior officer of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

    According to her, Habib obtained the money through a third party, now at large with the promise to secure a job for his victim him with the NCS.

    “After receiving the money, the suspect allegedly issued Okpanachi an employment letter, which was later confirmed fake by authorities of the Service.

    “Okpanachi later petitioned the ICPC after trying unsuccessfully to recover his money from Habib over a period of four years.

    “The commission promptly swung into action and investigations revealed that the suspect had indeed fraudulently obtained the money from his victim.

    “The said amount was recovered from the suspect and then handed over to the petitioner,’’ she said.

    Okpanachi reportedly beamed with excitement as the money was handed to him by Mr Tunji Jabaru of the Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management Unit of the ICPC.

    The petitioner, who said he had lost hope of recovering the money, expressed gratitude to the commission for the “wonderful job’’.

  • We will meet revenue target – Customs

    We will meet revenue target – Customs

     Comptroller of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Area I Command, Port Harcourt,  Mr. Kabiru Isiyaku, said the command is optimistic that it will meet its N33.3 billion revenue target for the year.

    Isiyaku stated this on Friday in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

    “The revenue we collected in the first quarter of 2017 is more than what was collected in the first quarter of 2016.

    “Our revenue estimate for each month is N2.6 billion.

    “In the month of January 2017 we collected N1.5 billion,  February was  N1.9 billion and March was N6.8 billion;  almost N10 billion was collected for the quarter.

    ‘’We are expected to collect about seven billion naira but we collected about N10 billion so we have surpassed our target for the first quarter of 2017,” he said.

    Isiyaku attributed the first quarter performance to capacity-building and hard work of officers of the command.

    He said 100 per cent physical examination of cargoes had enabled NCS to identify some classification issues and valuation and raised demand notice.

    “It has helped us in meeting revenue collection in the first quarter,” he said.

    Isiyaku, however, said the depth of the Rivers ports had robbed the command of huge amount of money.

    “But I am sure that we will meet our revenue target of N33.3 billion since we have surpassed our revenue target in the first quarter of 2017.

    “The challenge we have at the wharf is the depth of the sea; it can only accommodate only about 25-tonne or 26-tonne vessels.

    ‘’You can see that it is affecting the number of vessels coming to berth in this Sea Port,” Isiyaku said.

    He pointed out that Central Bank of Nigeria’s policy which removed importers of 41 items from accessing from obtaining foreign exchange (FOREX) through the official market had affected importation.

    “The importers must have FOREX before they can do importation.

    “Our responsibility is to collect revenue; to bring in the cargo is outside the jurisdiction of NCS,” he said.

  • Suspected smuggler killed in gun duel with Customs operatives

    Suspected smuggler killed in gun duel with Customs operatives

    Personnel of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit, Ikeja, on Tuesday   killed a suspected smuggler at Sango-Ota, Ogun.

    Confirming the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone, the Ogun Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Bimbola Oyeyemi, said the suspected smuggler was killed during a gun duel.

    Oyeyemi said that officers of the NCS had intercepted some smugglers at the toll gate in Ota.

    They, however, resisted arrest and opened fire and in the exchange, the yet to be identified man was killed.

    ”There was a gun fire between the officials of the NCS and the smugglers at the toll-gate, Ota, Ogun, that brought about the death of one of the smugglers,’’ he said.

    The spokesman said that the police had, however, restored peace in the area and prevented loss of innocent lives.

    He said that the police had started investigation into the incident.

     

  • Customs: Dealers rush for vehicle terminal N50m bond license 

    Customs: Dealers rush for vehicle terminal N50m bond license 

    The Public Relations, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Joseph Attah, on Wednesday revealed that dealers have started rushing to indicate interest to operate the N50 million bonded vehicle terminals.

    Speaking with journalists in Abuja, he said “Yes. A lot have indicated interest and the process is on-going.”

    According to him, the Service was ready to begin issuance of the licence and that there are already positive responses from the public.  

    He said: “A lot of people have indicated interest and the process is on-going. NCS is ready for the issuance of licences to people who are interested, what it takes is for interested persons to acquire a big land, fence it and have Customs section within, a workstation with connectivity and computer system that can easily connect to the Customs server.

    “Such person will also be required to enter into a bank bond of N50 million. He will now apply through the Customs Area Comptroller of the command he wants to site the terminal to the Comptroller General.” 

    Asked to comment on the response of Customs officers to the recent upgrade of HND to level 08, he said that the announcement has restored the morale and dignity of the affected officers.

    According to him,  “The reaction has been positive; it has been morale lifting across the commands. By that singular decision, officers and men are saying that the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC) has written his name in gold because he has restored dignity, integrity and pride of the affected officers.

    “In my own view, reducing the rank of an HND holder because he does h=not have a B.Sc was not a perfect decision. The CGC in keeping with his reform agenda has done what needed to have been done many years back. He has restored laughter and happiness and by the grace of God, we are expecting higher productivity.”

    Meanwhile a former Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri has commended the reforms at the Service.

    He pointed out that “What we are witnessing now is an attempt to ensure that we conform to the provisions of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the rules of our country and that Customs serves the best interest of Nigerians.”

    He advised that importation of rice should not be banned out rightly but done in phases according to local production capacity. 

    He said: “Believe me, policies relating to agriculture in this country have been result-oriented. I must say that it is not just starting from this administration, it started from previous ones. 

    “Today, we are seeing revolutions in Anambra, Nasarawa, Kebbi with rice everywhere. So what we need to do is not an outright ban, but we should reduce the ban according to the level of production. If we are able to produce 10,000 tonnes and we are importing 20,000, let us cut off the 10,000 and bring in the other 10,000 tonnes so that we do not go hungry,” Omeri explained.

    He also urged consumers to patronise local rice saying, “So let us look at the nutritional value and begin to patronise made in Nigeria rice. Let us do phased withdrawal of import of rice in this country so that our people can grow more.”

  • Customs to officially deploy e-auction platform – Official

    Mr Joseph Attah, Public Relations Officer, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says in a matter of days, the service will officially deploy electronic auction platform for Nigerians.

    Attah announced this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

    He said that interested Nigerians who wanted to be part of the system should approach the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to acquire the Tax Identification Number (TIN).

    “I told you earlier that the electronic auction platform is ready and undergoing a User Acceptability Test (UAT).

    “In a matter of days, it is going to be officially deployed for Nigerians.

    “Those who want to be part of this system should approach the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to acquire the tax Identification Number (TIN). That is what it takes, they should get that ready,”Attah said.

    On bonded terminal licence, Attah said that NCS was ready to license operators who secured a N50 million bank bond to operate a vehicle terminal.

    He said that the Service was ready to begin issuance of licence, adding that there were already positive responses from the public.

    “A lot of people have indicated interest and the process is on-going.

    “ NCS is ready for the issuance of licences to people who are interested.

    “What it takes is for interested persons to acquire a big land, fence it and have Customs section within; a workstation with connectivity and computer system that can easily connect to the Customs server.

    “Such person will also be required to enter into a bank bond of N50 million.

    “He or she will now apply through the Customs Area Comptroller of the command that he wants to site the terminal to the Comptroller General,” he said.

    NAN reports that Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), retired Col. Hameed Ali, rolled out the policy after banning the importation of vehicles through the land borders in January.

    On the recent removal of HND dichotomy in Customs, Attah said that the reaction had been positive and morale lifting across the commands.

    Attah said that with the singular decision, officers and men saying that the CGC had written his name in gold because he restored dignity, integrity and pride of the affected officers.

    “In my own view, reducing the rank of an HND holder because he does not have a B.Sc was not a perfect decision.

    “The CGC, in keeping with his reform agenda, has done what needed to have been done many years back.

    “ He has restored laughter and happiness and by the grace of God, we are expecting higher productivity,” Attah said.

  • Customs distributes 136, 476 bags of rice to IDPs camps

    Customs distributes 136, 476 bags of rice to IDPs camps

    The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has distributed 136, 476 bags of rice in the last one year to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the Northeast and Benin.

    Mr Joseph Attah, Public Relations Officer of the Service, announced this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

    The distribution of relief materials by the NCS to the IDPs camps across the country was in compliance with presidential directive to distribute seized perishable items to IDPs in the North-East.

    He said that the reinstatement of the ban on rice importation through the land borders few months after lifting it in 2016 was to stem the tide of rice smuggling.

    Attah said that between Jan. 1, and March 31, the service had made a seizure of 136,506 (50kg) bags of rice from different land borders.

    “I can assure you that our anti-smuggling strategy is yielding positive dividend in the last three months (January to March), we seized a total of 136, 506 50kg bags of rice.

    “The last one year (March 2016 to March 2017), we made a seizure of 205, 825 bags with a duty paid value of over N1 billion, that is just rice alone.

    “To build another layer of policing, we have what we call the compliance team, which made a total of 921 seizures with a Duty Paid Value of over N1 billion, most of these seizures are rice and then vehicles,’’ he said.

    Attah said that customs in its fight against rice smugglers had record successes, adding that the service had paid great prices, especially in the area of loss of the lives of its officers.

    He said that the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd.), had adopted holistic approach in fighting smuggling in the country.

    Attah said that beyond seizing and arresting smugglers, the service had been in the fore front of educating the public about the unwholesome nature of these rice because of the method used in smuggling them.

    “The idea is to protect Nigerians and shift taste to locally produced rice.

    “We believe that when there is no patronage, there will be no smuggling.

    “Therefore, it is disturbing to see people who should rather invest their energy in a profitable venture of providing intelligence to the service to protect their businesses, national economy and security engaging in smuggling,’’ he explained.

    He said that the service was investigating the information that some rich individuals allegedly buy motorcycles and handsets for unemployed youths to monitor the movement of Customs patrol men and gives information that aide smuggling of rice.

    “There were cases when villagers were mobilised to attack and block officers when they were carrying seized rice to the station.

    “They use such confusion as smoke screen to inform smugglers to follow another route, just to beat the check and achieve their criminal venture,” he added.

    Attah, therefore, called on Nigerians to desist from smuggling, adding that any country where smuggling activities was high, it kills the economy.

  • Customs urges Nigerians to see smuggling as a crime

    Customs urges Nigerians to see smuggling as a crime

    The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has urged Nigerians to see smuggling as a crime and support it to succeed in the war against smugglers.

    Mr Joseph Attah, Public Relations Officer of the Service, made the sppeal while addresding the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

    He said that the service anti-smuggling strategy was yielding positive dividend, adding that in the past three months, the service had seized 136,506 bags of rice.

    “All Nigerians should see smuggling as a crime so that they will support the service to succeed in our ongoing war against smugglers.

    “Seeing smuggling as a crime means that you will be willing to give creditable information that will help us succeed.

    “As villagers that live around border line, they should be willing to support customs officers whenever they make seizures and they are encountering some difficulties, rather than supporting the smugglers against customs

    ” In Nigeria when a thief is arrested or an armed robber is arrested, you hardly get to see people going to beg for them.

    “But today when a smuggler is arrested you see Nigerians,  including some respected ones in our society, coming to beg for such persons to be released because they don’t see smuggling as a crime; they see it as a trade,’’ Attah said.

    He said that some Nigerians often times accused the NCS of not doing enough in its service delivery.

    He said it was wrong for people to think that  a smuggler could only be successful when supported in active connivance by customs officers.

    According to him, smugglers now take advantage of the porous borders, adding that oftentimes  they are supported by villagers at the border line and unpatronic well to do individuals in carryiny out their smuggling activities.

    ” NCS cannot 100 per cent vouch for its officers like any other human organisation; it is totally wrong to suggest that every criminal activity must be with the connivance of
    an operative,” he added.

    Attah said that the service would remain focused on its statutory function of enforcing government polices rather than being distracted by the blame game

    ” In our continuous efforts to suppress smuggling, information, suggestions that can help the service to perform better are welcome from well meaning individuals or organisation.”

  • Customs restricts exit of rice from free trade zones – Official

    The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it has restricted the exit of rice from Free Trade Zones (FTZs) in the country to ensure total compliance to the ban on the importation of rice.

    Mr. Joseph Attah, the Public Relations Officer of NSC told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, that the Service has taken its war against rice smuggling to the FTZs.

    Attah said that due to the high level of security along the border lines, some Nigerians were taking advantage of the status of the FTZ to smuggle rice into the country.

    “Just last week the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hameed Ali, issued a directive that no rice should exit from FTZ into the country. We know that the FTZ enjoys special status under the law.

    “It is known as a country within a country. That is why some items that are not allowed in the country are allowed by law to be imported into the country by the operators in the FTZ.

    “However, the NSC has discovered that some operators are taking advantage of the status of the FTZ. They now circumvent the law restricting rice importation through the land borders.

    “So if we block the land borders and allow operators of FTZ to bring in rice through the seaport into the FTZ and then exit into Nigeria, our efforts at the land borders will be in vain,” Attah said

    He explained that the FTZ was a land of its own, as such the law that apply to the land border should also be apply to the FTZ because it is a land, and “between the two borders, there is no seaport.”

  • Customs set N50m cap for bonded vehicle terminals

    Customs set N50m cap for bonded vehicle terminals

    The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that it is set to commence the operation of  Bonded Vehicle Terminals in the country, stressing that the players have to secure a  bank bond of  N50 million for eligibility and operation of a terminal.

    Speaking with journalists in Abuja, the Acting Public Relations Officer, Mr. Joseph Attah said that the essence of the fund is to ensure that government revenue is secured.

    He said that any interested person has to apply through the Customs Area Command. Attah noted that: “So essentially that is, and then there is a bond, we call it bonded vehicle terminal, you will have to approach a bank and enter into a bond to the tune of  N50 million.”  He (terminal owner) has to secure a bank bond of N50million. You know I told you we move these vehicles without duty. So, these is just to make sure that government revenue is secured, so you won’t even play pranks.”

    He stressed that the service is now ready to start the operation as he said that “As I have said, today custom is ready for this. And any interested person needs to start by writing application through the area controller. That is, through the area controller of the command where he wants to locate or site his bonded terminal.”

    The spokesman recalled that when the policy banning the importation of cars through the land borders came into effect on the 1st January 2017, Nigerians complained that most of the dealers would lose their jobs.

    Attah however submitted that “Little did they know that the Nigerian Customs Service studied situations that attracted some of our business men and women to our neighbouring ports and also why car dealers in Nigeria patronize car parks in other neighbouring countries are designed to rather strengthen the businesses of these car dealers.  We had meetings then around ending January and the service promised to work out the modality to start issuing motor dealers or indeed any interested person licenses for the operation of bonded vehicle terminals in Nigeria.”

    According to him, prior to the introduction of the bonded vehicle terminal, the there were container terminals.

    He however explained that now whoever wants to operate a bonded vehicle terminal need to have an expanse of land that is wide enough to accommodate many vehicles in a fenced environment.

    He said that owning a terminal means that the operator can import vehicles from any part of the world and stating from the beginning as vehicles destined to ‘AB&C bonded terminal in Abuja’, Kano or wherever it maybe, right from the beginning it is manifested like that.

    Continuing he said that “On arrival at the sea port, without the pressure of him going to look for money or go and take loan to pay customs duty,  customs officers will escort this vehicles to his bonded vehicle terminals, without payment of duty. And those vehicle will stay there for at least 28-30days without even payment of duty. Custom will also establish a small custom  outpost within each of these terminals.

    “Within these first 28-30 days, if a customer comes there to buy a vehicle, he simply buys the vehicle,  walks into the customs outpost within that terminal, pays his duty and drive her  vehicle  confidently home,  without the fear of running into any customs  checkpoint or being asked to present the pass and all that.

    “Eventually, it is our hope that when this thing is established, when this thing becomes  the normal practice in Nigeria, gone will be the days when somebody will be  driving a  vehicle and be fearing to meet a customs checkpoint.

    “Apart from this there are other multiplier effects, positively.  Wherever there these  bonded vehicle terminals commercial banks will begin to open branches there, because  there is going to be volumes of commercial transactions, that is job opportunity.

    “Where ever there is this bonded vehicle terminal spare part dealers will open their shops around that place, because they know when you buy these vehicles there might  be one two things to change, that is job opportunity.

    “In these vehicle terminals, food vendors will open restaurants and all that there. Even  young people, some boys and girls who are strong enough to come and Wash these cars every day to get some money from the operators of these terminals.”