Author: Saint Augustine

…Lifts ban on furniture, textile import The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Dr. Dikko Inde Abdullahi has assured the stakeholders that the Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) component of the ECOWAS Common External Tariffs (CET) would continue to be gradually phased out until the 2020 deadline when the detailed provision of the ECOWAS CET would be in full force. Dikko who made this known at the official launch of the implementation of the CET in Lagos yesterday, pointed out that members states were permitted to apply temporary provisions which includes the Import Adjustment Tax and Special Protection Tax (SPT)…

A fresh crisis appears to be brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose has rejected Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko as chairman of the party’s Governors’ Forum. Fayose has rallied some other governors in the party to kick against Mimiko’s emergence. He has petitioned the national leadership of the party to intervene before the matter degenerates into a full blown crisis. A source at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja was quoted to have confirmed the receipt of the petition against Mimiko. The party’s National Working Committee (NWC) will be meeting the party’s governors…

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday ordered immediate removal of military check points nationwide. This was disclosed to State House correspondents by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Ismail Aliyu, after about five hours defence briefing to the President at the State House, Abuja. He said the police will take over internal security. Aliyu maintained that the Boko Haram insurgency will soon be over. He said the Lake Chad Basin Commission nations are coming up with strategies to tackle the problem of insecurity. He said: “The President has instructed the Chief of Defence Staff to get the Chief of…

After spending over three weeks at the Defence House since his inauguration, President Muhammadu Buhari was reported to have finally moved into his official residence in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja. The President was reported to have relocated to the country’s seat of power on Sunday evening. He was said to have made the move after returning from a visit to his native Katsina state. His wife had reportedly moved into Aso Rock yesterday. Buhari and his vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo have been living outside the Villa and used the Defence House, Abuja as their offices since their inauguration…

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has again reversed its public action by releasing multibillion naira textile materials earlier suspected to be contraband found in the custody of four Chinese nationals in Kano metropolis. The textiles materials, which were tagged contraband and seized by the NCS four weeks ago, were supposedly released based on an agreement reached between the leadership of Kantin Kwari textile market and officials of the NCS. The Customs reportedly requested the owners of the suspected contraband textile materials to pay 25 percent duty, which was later cut down and agreed at five percent. Some of the textiles…

The National Chairman, New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has called on the intelligence agencies operating in the country to probe further into the incessant accidents involving petroleum tankers as recently recorded in some parts of the country saying that there could be more to it than meet the eyes. Speaking in Lagos, Aniebonam who was worried on account of the number of lives and properties being lost as result of this current trend said that the security agencies needed to watch again and carry out some level of profiling so as to ascertain whether or not those…

The National Chairman, New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam has urged Nigerians to desist from mounting pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari over Ministerial as well as other key appointments in his cabinet. Aniebonam who made this appeal in an interview with Primetime Reporters in Lagos pointed that Nigeria needed best hands to run the administration adding that Nigerians would begin to assess the President from the calibre of people he appointed into ministerial positions thus they were watching to know who he was going to brought in. He reminded Nigerians that the government was thinking of reducing the…

…As NAFFAC faults claims The National President, Association of Registered Freight Forwarders of Nigeria (AREFFN), Dr. Frank Ukor has faulted the allegation by the Secretary of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tincan Island Chapter, Evang. Chuks Daivd Kanikwu that AREFFN has not been fully accredited by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria (CRFFN) saying that he (Kanikwu) was being economical with the truth. It will be recalled that Kanikwu had earlier in an interview he granted Primetime Reporters recently alleged that AREFFN and two other freight forwarding association had not been fully accredited…

The Concerned Accredited Freight Forwarding Associations (CAFFA) has dissociated itself from the planned shutdown of the Tincan Island Container Terminal (TICT) by the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Tincan Island chapter describing it as ill-timed. Recall that the ANLCA had earlier issued a press release where it threatened to shut down activities at the TICT over what it called “mindless extortions and high level of inefficiency” on the part of the TICT management. In a press release issued last Friday by the Publicity Secretary of CAFFA, a copy of which was obtained by Primetime Reporters, the group stated…

Following the recent adjournment of the case between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) on one hand and between the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Association of Shipping Line Agencies (ASLA) on the other hand, the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) has advocated the use of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) in settling the matters in contention. Recall that the Court of Appeal in Lagos presided over by Justice Uzoamaka Anyanwu on Thursday adjourned the matters mentioned above to the 4th of February, 2016 for hearing. The National President…