The Customs Area Controller (CAC), Seme Border Area Command, Comptroller Victor Dimka has resolved to transform seme border command by exploiting every available opportunity to create an enabling working environment to legitimate trade through the coastal Lagos-Abidjan corridor.
The controller is seen to be resolute and uncompromising in his determination to break the jinx of abnormality, irregularities and abuse of procedures.
Reading the riot Act to both the officers and the critical stakeholders, the comptroller said ‘’the Nigeria Customs Service Seme Command refuse to be intimidated by any form of organized protest against the implementation of federal government policies. Seme will never remain the same again and nothing will be done with impunity any longer. We must get it right and have a complete moral rebirth in order to complement the relentless effort of the CGC to collect maximum revenue which is one of the core mandates of the service that cannot be handle with levity’’.
Determined to make a difference at all cost, the Customs Area Controller who is a vanguard of change and war against non-compliance is using every medium at his disposal to sensitize the public, opinion leaders, the host communities, critical stakeholders and media organizations to partner with him so that the conscious mistake of the past will be avoided.
Also, in a chat with some media men in the command, the Controller appealed to the print media to go into investigative journalism so as to give a balance, objective and fair representation of both sides on any report or publication to the general public.
Compt. Dimka re-stated that the command had remained firm for people to get it right and for change to be effected.
He cited an instance where the uniformity of the ex-factory price on vehicles in all land borders was misunderstood by the critical stakeholders to be enforced only in Seme command.
He used the medium to re-state why he was at Seme border command saying, “I am here not to be an impediment to legitimate trade, but to sanitize Seme to adhere strictly to customs extant laws, facilitate legitimate trade and collect the maximum revenue, therefore, I cannot work against my mandate of maximum revenue collection’’.
He appealed to critical stakeholders to get it right as government fiscal policies were not meant to be against the citizenry but to bring about the economic development of the entire nation.
Compt. Dimka disclosed that despite the low activities recorded in the last one month occasioned by the strike embarked by Benin Customs, the skyrocketing exchange rate and the command’s resolute stand for people to comply with the bench mark as stipulated in customs’ extant laws, the command remained undaunted to perform above board as there was a gradual change of attitude to compliance.
He called on all those who were out to circumvent government policies from smooth implementation to have a rethink, surrender and cooperate with the command to move the nation forward, as anything contrary to actualizing the mandate of the service would not see the light of the day.
The CAC warned all officers not to be involved in the clearance of imported vehicles or interfere with the activities of all the registered licensed agents warning that any officer caught in the act would face the full wrath of the law.
He also charged the officers not to be intimidated by saboteurs in the course of the discharge of their statutory functions.
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