The Managing Director, Stephens Global Services Limited, Comrade Stephen Ibe has said that eight out of every ten customs officers working at the Nigerian seaports, Airports and Land border stations are operating a customs license.
Recall that customs license is meant for the customs license agents who are not customs officers but are individuals licensed by the Nigeria Customs Service to carry out on its behalf such duties as may be determined by the service from time to time so as to facilitate trade in the customs ports, airports and land border stations.
But according to Ibe, majority of the licenses issued by the Nigeria Customs Service were owned by the customs officers who procured these licenses through a proxy who front for them and carry out the job of customs agents on their behalf.
He maintained that as a result, the customs officers were in the habit of frustrating jobs that did not come through them by issuing frivolous alerts on those jobs.
According to him,” Mostly, all the jobs that are being done, if you don’t do your job through a customs officer, they will frustrate that job by issuing frivolous alerts on the job. As I am talking to you now, there is no duty you pay in any consignment as far as the Nigerian Ports are concerned that is okay.
“As a customs agent, if you say you don’t want problem, let me pay my dues, pay any amount that is duty, you must be called by alert to go and do business with them and settle them before they remove that alert. Either they remove it or they will now issue a DN that you don’t know where it is coming from because this is not a regime where you will write a petition, the former Comptroller-General’s regime. If you cry up and down and don’t know what to do, you must go on a round table to discuss with them and settle them.
“So, the issue of customs officers running a license is the main cause of corruption in the ports, most licenses in this industry are being owned by customs officers”.
When asked if he could mention one two customs officers he knew that were operating customs licenses, he said,” If I do that I will be behaving like a small boy. I cannot mention names but I want you to know that if come to Apapa ports now and you meet ten customs officers, eight of them are operating customs license. So, how can I begin to mention names? Mostly, all the customs officers you see in the fields are yearning for jobs from importers”.
On why the silence on the part of the leadership of the various freight forwarding associations in this regard, Ibe who is the former Deputy National Coordinator of Save Nigeria Freight Forwarders, Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNIFFIEC) had this to say,” You know I have told you that most of our founders and Presidents in these associations have been compromised that when you bring this issue and say this is what is happening, what do we do about it? Our associations’ hierarchy will tell you to go and rest, are you the only person in the system?
“When you talk about associations, you are talking about NAGAFF, ANLCA, AREFFN and others but all these association, they have been bought over. Until we have a new revolutionary associations, new ones that when they are being called or cajoled to come and collect money or when somebody is calling them to send their account number for money to be transferred into their account, they will say no, they don’t need it”.
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