By Stephen Ubanna
For years , Port Harcourt Area 1, Command, has not been reckoned with as one of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, major revenue generating Area Commands at the seaports. This is because of the low volume of cargo traffic at the Rivers port as many of the Freight Forwarders have limited or no job to do.
Past Comptrollers and Officers deployed to the Command were said to have seen it as punishment as ocean-going vessels gladdened with cargoes scarcely sail to the port to discharge cargoes as the regular vessels that carry mostly Bulk cargoes as the Onne port remain the first choice for the traders and the Foreign shipping Companies .
Compt. Chedi Wada, may have known, that he has a big task at hand when he was redeployed from Katsina Command, in President Muhammadu Buhari, home state, which was a basically an Interventionist Unit to the Port Harcourt Area 1, located at the Rivers port to collect both revenue for the government and contain the activities of smugglers at the port.
Indeed, not many, including the Freight Forwarders, had expected the new Customs Comptroller, deployed to PortHarcourt Area I, and his officers to make any appreciable impact in the Command in terms of revenue collection because it was an election year.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the close watch of Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, had fixed February 25, 2023 and March 18, 2023, for Nigerians to go the poll to elect the next Nigerian President, National Assembly, governorship and state Assembly Lawmakers, respectively.
Given the importance attached to the two leg- elections: presidential and National Assembly, governorship and state Assembly, may have encouraged many traders to scale down the volume of their importation. From Lagos ports of Apapa, Tincan Island, Port Terminal Multiservices, PTML, Kirikiri Lighter terminal to the south east ports of Onne, Rivers, PortHarcourt to Delta and Calabar, ports, the story was the same: low volume of importation of cargoes and drop in in revenue.
Comptroller, Wada, who was said to be a threat, to the diehard smugglers in Katsina state,may have shown his skills as an all-round Customs Administrator in dealing with fraudulent importers with their agents including the smugglers when the Jibia border between Nigeria and Niger Republic, was reopened for business transactions in April 2022, alongside Idiroko in Ogun state, Kamba, Kebbi state, and Ikom border in Cross river state.
Fraudulent importers, and exporters with their agents, who were said to have found their way back to the reopened Jibia Land border Community to do what they best: wrong declaration and underpayment and Concealment of prohibited items to short change the government who may have had the handwriting on the wall that they would not find it easy with the Compt. Waa, were said to have been forced to turn a new leaf. The situation may not be different in PortHarcourt Area I, Command.
With the burning desire to improve on the revenue generation of the Command at the Rivers port may have encouraged him to block all the areas of revenue leakages as he was said to have done at the Jibia border, insisting that the right thing must be done by importers and exporters with their agents to operate freely port noting that those who should worry are the illegitimate traders.
As a prelude to turning things around at the Rivers port, the PortHarcourt Area I, Customs Comptroller, was said to have gone out of his way to market the port.This is evident as two ocean- going vessels laddened with cargoes was said to have called at the port to discharge their cargoes in March, 2023, being the month of the presidential and National Assembly elections, to discharge their cargoes which many see as very encouraging.
This may have kept the officers and the freight forwarders busy for much of March, thus giving them the hope that more vessels laddened with cargoes would still call at the port in the months ahead. Desperate importers and exporters with their agents, who were said to have taken advantage of the fact that the Port Harcourt, Area I, Customs boss, was new at the port to do something funny have a story to tell as he was said to have frustrated them by issuing them Demand Notice, DN.
With three months down the line that Compt. Wada has taken effective control of the PortHarcourt Area I, Command, by carrying out surgical operations at the Management level to strengthen its operations taking a cue from Compt. Mahmud Ibrahim, of PTML, described as Mr. Compliance in Customs circles, and with anti-smuggling expertise was said to have resulted in 119 interventions.
A Comparative analysis of the interventions made by the Command under Compt. Wada Leadership, shows that it recovered N321.2 million for the government in the month of January, followed by the N224.2 million that was said to have been recovered in March, the month of the governorship and state Assembly elections while the sum of N37.21 million , was recovered in February, the month of the Presidential and National Assembly election as the importers and the agents may have been studying the Customs Comptroller style of Administration before devising new strategies to beat the Customs to it to exit their cargoes from the port.
They may have tried their new tricks to exit their cargoes by beating he examination officers to it but could not beat the Area Controller who could read in-between the lines the documents sent to him to sign to find fault. It was not surprising why the amount recovered for the government in the month of March, rose astronomically, that it has become the talk of the day at the port.
, The interventions was said to have resulted in the Command recovering N582,576,341.00, revenue that could have entered into private pockets but returned into government coffers through the issuance o’ cargoe DN, to the suspected importers cargoes and which were paid before the agent processing the document was allowed to exit the cargo from the port.
Note that within the same period last year, when Compt. Mohammed Ibrahim, was still in-charge of the Command’s operations, it was said to have 91 interventions and recovered N373, 762,301.00, revenue for the government that could have been lost.
The huge amount that was said to have been recovered by Compt. Wada, led PortHarcourt Area I, Command, despite the low economic activities at the port due the elections may have sent a message to the importers, and exporters with their agents that the months ahead may be tougher as the Customs Area Controller and his field officers were determined to do more with the planned implementation of the Revised 63 year-old Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA, that has been signed into Law by the Nigerian President.
Many had expected the revenue generated by the Port Harcourt Area I Command, to have dropped drastically, in the first quarter of 2023 but the reverse was the case.Going by the Command’s report card for the first three months of 2023, Fiscal year, it was said to have generated and paid into the Federation Account N28,507,808,031.000 as against the N23.146,320,043.00 , during the tenure of Compt. Ibrahim.
The breakdown shows that the Command, under Compt. Wada Leadership, generated N8.907 million in the month of January. Note part of the January revenue was generated by the former Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Ibrahim while the Command under Compt. Wada, generated N7.924 million in February and N 11.675 million, in March, when the Area Controller, was said to have used his position to attract two vessels to the pport , other than the regular vessels that call at the port with the normal Bulk cargoes.
Mathematically, the amount of revenue generated by the PortHarcourt Area I, Commmand, under the new Management of Compt. Wada in the first quarter of 2023, was put at about N5.4bn, or 23% higher than what was collected and paid into the government coffers within the same period last yearby Compt. Ibrahim, the then Area Controller.
Compt. Wada, was said to have told those that cares to listen that the Command could not have achieved that much without ‘’the magnanimous support of Hameed Ali, a retired Army Colonel and Comptroller General of NCS, and his Management Team’’.
