By Nwangwu Uba
More facts have emerged why Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel
This is to ensure transparency, security , increased avenue generation from such vehicles and to remove the vices associated with the previous arrangement where there was no accountability as auction papers were allocated to cronies and those who are connected to top Customs officials including National Assembly members, particular, those on the Committee on Customs, who could give notes to their cronies to give to theComptroller General to be given an auction allocation vehicle, showing that people were treated differently without following laid down procedure laid for such exercise.
That much was confirmed by Joseph Attah, a Deputy Comptroller and the Customs National Public Relations officer, NPRO. Attah disclosed that in operating the Custom
He disclosed that since the introduction of the e-auction platform for disposal of condemned vehicles by the Court of law in 2017, over 800 vehicles have been uploaded noting that 753 winners, across the country have so far emerged and taken delivery of the vehicles won without undue influence from any quarters.
In spite of the claim by the Customs spokesman that the electronic platform have provided an equal playing ground to every Nigerian and removed the vices associated with the previous arrangement of allocation auction papers to people without bidding for it, many still see it as a very unpopular policy as it favoured mostly those who are computer literate and who can read and write.
Going by the use of the electronic platform, critics believe that the illiterate farmer from the
It is not surprising why there is pressure on the Customs Comptroller General to abandon the e-auction policy and devise another strategy where people could be allowed to bid for the condemned vehicles openly and winners declared on the spot.
Some aggrieved Nigerians who spoke to The Value News online disclosed that the e-auction
In a related development, Kaycee Ekezie, an Assistant Comptroller of Customs and Zonal Coordinator, NCS, Zone A,comprising of 16 Customs Area Commands at the Airport, seaports and land border stations, in the southwest has said that the Zone alone,generated over 90 percent or N1.08trillion of the N1.1 trillion collected by the Service between January and November , 2018.
Ekezie who cashed in on the opportunity provided by Attah, the Customs Spokesman to rub minds with maritime Journalists in his Zonal office
She noted that the Zone could achive this spectacular record because of the doggedness of the officers, whose efforts in combatting smugglers both at the seaports andland border stations in Combating smuggling and other port -related offences. The Zonal Coordination cited the anti-smuggling officers of the FederalOperations Unit, FOU, Zone A, who could smash any form of tricks used bysmugglers to carry out their illegalbusiness at the ports and land order areas. Take
Indeed, this is the extent to which drug importers could go to take delivery of their imports at the seaport without obstruction. ”A greedy officer could fall for them to rubbish his career in the Service as Ali, the Customs Comptroller General is
