… Blames maritime journalists for not doing their job
Against the backdrop of contraband goods valued at N921 billion intercepted at the Apapa port by the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, recently paraded before the newsmen by the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the National Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Prince Segun Oduntan has said that it is all sensational media hype by the Service to get attention.
Speaking in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos recently, Oduntan sought to know how many of those contraband seized in the past that the Service had followed through its investigation, arrest and prosecution of suspects behind the importation to a logical conclusion in order to deter others from engaging in importation of contraband.
“It’s all sensational media hype, don’t let us deceive ourselves. Some people brought them in, what happened to those people behind those importation”, he queried.
On why there are usually no suspect arrested in connection with those contraband seized by the customs and nothing is heard after the contraband is paraded before the journalists, he said, “That is not a question for me. That is your own work and that is where you journalists are lacking or maybe are compromising. So, the case does not come up and it dies off like that. I will not do journalism work, let everybody do their work.
“So, you people are not doing your work, you are just doing half-truth journalism. You people should dig into all that you have written about contraband and do the profiling and ask questions from the agencies concerned. You have the records, we have the records. If you don’t get people involved in the Importation of illicit goods, it will continue unabated.”
He blamed the society for always believing that for whatever contraband imported into the country, there’s always a licensed customs agent collaborating, even as he challenged the NCS to name the agents involved in the illicit import alongside their companies.
Convinced that no member of ANLCA would be involved in importing contraband, Oduntan who is also the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Seattle Systems Nigeria Limited said, “If you tell me this company is involved, I will not leave here now before I get to know if he is on the list of our members. Everything you put on the head of the agents, is it the agents that traveled?”
“I have also told our members not to use their names to import goods on behalf of the importers because where they load something, you are not there. That’s third party importation. If you do it, you are meant to face the law, nothing concerns us.
“When I talk about agents, I am talking on behalf of ANLCA members. I am not talking about everyone who calls himself an agent. Someone else might decide to be doing that type of job, I wouldn’t know. I am talking about the members of the association that I belong to and deputizing for. If you tell me now one of your members was involved in importing contraband, I will pick up my phone and check immediately because we are in digital era now.
“All our members, we know them, from here to Kano, if you are not registered with us, we know you are not with us. So, I am not speaking for everybody that calls himself an agent.”
Charging the federal government to impress it on its agencies to fish out those behind importation of contraband, he said, “You know there cannot be agent collaboration without a customs officer and there cannot be without importer. Let them bring them out. Let us not be sensational about all these things, let us go and face the truth not everything agents.
“It’s not everybody that is an agent. If you bring that agent, the agent will tell you who is behind it. It’s because you have not nipped it in the board, that’s why it continued. So, that if they do five and they catch two, three will sell two and that three that sell two, cover for the loss. That’s why they will still regroup and bring tomorrow.”
On what roles the freight forwarding associations could play to assist the federal government through its agencies to nip importation of contraband in the bud, he said, “There’s no role and there’s role. There’s no role in the sense that we have always been enlightening our members on the statutory role of know your customer, so that if he gives you any consignment to clear, if you give me documents now, said to contain spare parts and along the line, they later found out during examination that it contains contraband, you don’t need to fear if any agency accousted you, then tell them that so, so and so did the importation.
“The one we cannot do is stopping people from doing what they used to do. At least, government is doing enlightenment, they are catching them everyday, then, how can we stop that? So, that one lies with the government. If the proper sanction is being given and people are being prosecuted, then, everybody will be more careful. So, that one, we cannot do.”
Photo: Prince Segun Oduntan, National Vice President, ANLCA.
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