Nigeria Customs Service has realized a total of N272,115,366 from the auction of 646 vehicles under its electronic auction scheme.
Spokesman of the service, Joseph Attah, disclosed this in Lagos when he briefed newsmen on the activities of the service in 2017.
Attah said the e-auction regime eliminated the manual process of auctioning seizures in the past which was lacking in transparency and did not yield maximum revenue for government.
”The introduction of the e-auction process was based on the need to eliminate abuses associated with manual process of the past. This is to ensure maximum revenue from the process while still providing equal opportunity to all interested Nigerians to log on to the e- auction portal and bid for any item they wish.
”The portal is opened to all interested persons to bid between 12noon Monday to 12noon Wednesday of every week. So far,646 number of vehicles have been won with N272,115,366 generated as revenue for the Federal Government”, he said.
He said the customs will continue to be careful in handling goods at its warehouses so as not to be dragged into unnecessary litigation by claimants as a result of illegal disposal.
Attah said the service was meticulous with seizures management as they were properly documented and kept in government warehouse or constructively warehoused (in the case of inflammable items) following which thorough investigations and compilations of case files were done.
He added that while perishable items such as frozen poultry products and other dangerous items were immediately destroyed , others had to wait for judicial process of court condemnation before they could be disposed off in line with the law.
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