Not sure of the reason behind the authorization of the Customs Strike Force team by the Management of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to intervene and possibly make seizures inside the seaports, the leadership of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) has written the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) seeking to have an audience with him on the matter so as to better appreciate the rationale behind the decision.
It will be recalled that Primetime Reporters, last week reported that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) had empowered the Controller General of Customs (CGC) Strike Force team to intervene right in the seaport and make seizures where necessary without hindrance.
This was contained in a circular No. 002 dated 25th April, 2019 with the title,”100% Examination of Cargo At The Seaports”, signed by the Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Examination, Inspection and Investigation, DCG Augustine Chidi and copied all Customs Area Controllers, Comptrollers FOUs A, B, C & D, Controllers EMC & WMC, Controller CIU, Comptroller Police and the National Coordinator CGC Strike Force.
The circular reads, “It has been observed that 100% examination of cargo at the ports are not done properly by the officers assigned to do so.
“Consequently, the following instructions must be carried out with immediate effect and Area Controllers will personally be held responsible for non-compliance.
“Henceforth, every Area Controller must respond accordingly to Strike Force Intervention Alerts.
“The Strike Force tem has been authorized henceforth to intervene right in the port and possibly make seizures where necessary without hindrance.
“Non-compliance to this circular would attract severe sanctions”.
However, speaking to newsmen in Lagos yesterday, the National President of ANLCA, Chief Tony Iju Nwabunike who just resumed duty for the first this year in the office stated that throughout the, they had been having meeting upon meetings with the Senior Special Assistants, with the National Execuive Committee (NECOM) and some other stakeholders on the circular.
Nwabunike said,” It is a matter of an urgent attention that required an urgent action. Of course, I have written a letter to the CG of customs that we want to see him personally, it is not just a matter of newspapers advertorials or media publicity, we want to sit down with him to know the actual reason why this should be because for us even the resident customs officers are feeling insecure too because some of them are thinking they are not doing the right thing or they are being given a vote of no confidence. I don’t want to preempt the CG of customs on this issue, what I want to do is to hear from the horses’ mouth and know why and how should we go about it”.
Asked if he believed that the circular was a vote of no confidence on the resident customs officers by the Management of the Service, he said,” I wouldn’t say that, there must be a reason why he should do that because this is management decision, this is his internal mechanism, so he must have a reason of doing this. That is why I am seeking for an appointment so that I could see him, we sit down with him and discuss this issue properly and know whether it is going to be a good decision for Nigerians.
“The important thing is our freight forwarders and the people who we are taking the goods for. Will it affect them? What is this thing all about? Does it mean you don’t trust you resident officers? Or do you want to put checks and balances on the resident officers? He must have a reason for that. So that reason I don’t know and that reason is what we want to know.
“We wrote it today (yesterday) and I am sure by Thursday he will get it. I don’t give a time line but I think that it is very important that we discuss the issue knowing full well that so many freight forwarders are not happy about this issue and his staff are not happy with this type of circular, in as much as they cannot speak but if you interview them, they won’t want to talk to you but the truth of the matter is that there is more reason to this and we want to know about it”.
On his assessment of the outcome of his previous meeting with the customs boss, he said,” The very first meeting we had with him was the time when some licenses were not renewed because of the maneuvering of vehicles which they said they were investigating and some of them were actually released, the ones they believed were genuine but many of them have not been released and I want them to do that. This is part of the reasons I am going for to know the problem because you can’t keep holding our licenses for a very long time not working. So, it is not as if it is a total failure meeting with him but some movements need to be more remarkable than that”.
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