Customs responsible for corruption in ports – Association

Last month, the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) and the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) jointly issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to address corruption in the ports or risk ground the ports and borders from (April 10) by withdrawing their services, Sunnews report.

The associations, in a statement in Lagos, said that the level of corruption in the ports perpetrated by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) was alarming, unbearable and runs counter to the purpose of the government regarding revenue collection.

They, therefore, warned that if the Federal Government fails to curtail the trend, they have no other choice than to withdraw their services.

“It is very surprising that what is happening in our ports and border areas with regard to corruption tend to portray our entry point activities as if that sector is not part of the entity, called Nigeria.

“Most worrisome is that the agents of government whose duty it is to protect government’s interests are seemingly in the forefront of encouraging corruption in this sector of the economy.

“It is obvious that our members have been pushed to the wall and they are tired of extortion, arbitrary charges, intimidation, false imprisonment, abuse of power and authority, impunity and high handedness,” the letter, read.

On the strength of their letter, the Comptroller General (CG) of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali, rushed down to Lagos on March 27, 2017, to calm the already frayed nerves of the freight forwarders.

When the CG met with the members of the associations, it was an open confrontation between the Customs officers and the aggrieved freight forwarders.

The President of ANLCA, Mr Olayiwola Shittu, demanded a new clearance procedure from the CG. He claimed that the existing clearing process was fraught with extortion.

“The clearing process is too cumbersome and fraught with extortion. They will frustrate you so that you pay demurrage. And this will make you lose your importer. This is done to ensure that you ‘play ball’” he said.

He noted that the multiplicity of Customs officers and other agencies doing the same jobs was deliberately to create room for corruption.

“When the customs has done everything to frustrate you, police will start another round of checks – all kinds of police– both the ones in uniform and the ones in mufti – are involved in examination” he said.

Shittu also listed several alert systems used to extort money from the importers which include, CG alert, CPC (Consumer Protection Council) alert, enforcement alert, system alert, Federal Operations Unit (FOU) alert, station alert. The alert system, he said, is also an avenue created to extort money from the importer.

Shittu wondered why an importer cannot clear the same vehicle between Apapa and Tin Can, with the same amount while expressing surprise that Customs employs a whiteman to collect bribe for them.

“Let it be a deliberate policy that no non-Nigerian will be involved in the clearance of cargo. The majority of intercepted cargo is the mastermind of foreigners. When you go to the comptroller’s office you see ‘oyibo’ man working” he wondered.

Similarly, freight forwarders at the nation’s airports also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to institute a probe into the operations of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) as part of measures to cleanse the rot in the service.

Operating under the auspices of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) chapter, the practitioners want the probe to commence from the Gyang Buba era of 2007.

Speaking for the group, its Chairman, Segun Musa, who said the comments of the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, that “Customs stinks”, had vindicated their long-held stand about the paramilitary body.

Musa, who said the corruption in Customs was 80 per cent of the total decay in the Nigerian society, noted that such a probe should expose how much the service had generated during the era of Risk Assessment Report (RAR) and Pre-Arrival Assessment Report (PAAR).

He added that the inquest should also unravel the percentage of PAAR and Demand Notices (DN) raised with corresponding revenue and transmitted from Customs headquarters, even as he added that there should be post-audit of all revenues generated by all commands.

“We also want to know the number of seizures Customs made at the seaports, airports and borders in the period under review and how they were disposed of and the accruing revenue. If they were auctioned, who were their buyers and how much was realised?

“We also want to know how many licences the customs have issued. How many of such are in use and how many that have been withdrawn and who are the beneficiaries of the licences, agents or Customs officers? Musa stated.

The NAGAFF chapter boss alleged that all the so-called Customs reforms were embedded in corruption, citing the PAAR initiative as one put in place to feather the nest of senior officers.

For effective work to be carried out in the course of investigation, he suggested that a credible body comprising anti-graft agencies, civil society groups, the ministries of transport and finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, representatives of freight forwarders and importers, among others, should do the job.

On the proposed amendment to the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA), pending at the National Assembly, Musa called on the lawmakers to jettison the idea describing the document as an “intellectual fraud”.

He cited many of the sections of the amendment proposal as being in conflict with citizens’ fundamental human rights and anti-trade; hence he suggested that the document be thrown into the trash can.

However, the Comptroller General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali, in response to the litany of allegations, admitted that the officials of the service compromise in the clearance of goods and that is why the Federal Government introduced a multiple alert system. He also blamed the agents for false and under-declaration of goods, saying that these acts give room for bribery and corruption.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari, appointed Colonel Hameed Ali, a retired military officer to head the institution because of his knowledge of the depth of corruption in the institution. Ali was given a clear mandate to reform, restructure, reorganise and sanitise the service. So, some of the hard policies he has introduced so far were because of the mandate given to him by the president.

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