By Stephen Ubanna
Those who had expected Compt. Kola Oladeji, Area Controller, Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, the ntion’s Commercial nerve centre, ridden on the back of Kehinde Husain Ejibunu, his predecessor, described in Customs circles as the anti-smuggling Czar, and now Coordinator of the newly established Opeation Whirlwind, to achieve success would be disappointed.
Compt. Oladeji. who oversees the southern western states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo, in his capacity as the Area Controller of FOU, Zone A, may have shocked members of the League of Maritime Editors who paid him a working visit on Monday, July 15, 2024, when he disclosed that he started from scratch in his anti-smuggling war in the FOU, Zone A, contrary to reports making the rounds that Compt. Ejibuno, had made the job easy for him.
Although, Compt. Oladeji, who looks calm may not be a household name in Customs anti-smuggling war as seen as being very difficult in different quarters. The tall looking calm, cool and calculating the Customs Comptroller may have proved pundits who have a wrong impression of him wrong. The Value News online Magazine findings shows that people have had wrong impression of him because of attempts made to reach out to him to bend the rules but failed as he had insisted that ‘’the right thing must be done’’.
An insider confirmed that he comes to the office between Monday to Sunday, stays late into the night to ensure adequate policing of the Land borders and bonded terminals within the Command areas of jurisdiction with little or no time to himself to rest.
The Customs Comptroller who may have been a good student of Sani Nuhu Abubakar, an Assistant Comptroller General, ACG, Customs Headquarters, rtd, who was said to have frowned at the FOUs and other Interventionist units, Patrol teams across the country making seizures of one or two bags of foreign rice around the Border areas from low profile smugglers and seeing it as a big deal.
He had said that with the support of Bashir, Adewale Adeniyi, MFR, the Customs Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, and his Management eam, the FOU, Zone A under his Leadership, has been able to change the narrative of anti-smuggling operations in the south western geopolitical region comprising of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo states, described as hotbed of smuggling operations in Nigeria. Hear him: We have been able to achieve what we have achieved so far, in the Command and still do what they are doing: clip the wings of the smugglers and fraudulent importers with their agents.
The Online Magazine who had taken hm up on the rumour making the rounds that he has taken a cue from Compt. Ejibunu, his predecessor, now overseeing Operation Whirlwind, by using the Command size and population to carry out a blockade of the Ogun I, Idiroko and Oyo/Osun areas of jurisdiction, thus making it difficult for the sister interventionist Commands to operate and do the needful: tackle the economic saboteurs and fraudulent importers as expected had denied it.
Giving an inside information, the FOU, Zone A, Area Controller, who may not have the question funny had said that what the Command was doing was not different from the mandate given to the unit as enshrined in the Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA, 2023, which has to do with anti-smuggling, revenue generation and facilitation of Legitimate trade.
‘’We will pursue it ‘’ to ensure goods prohibited by the government do not enter into the country through any illegitimate route or exit the ports illegally without payment of appropriate duties due to false declaration ,underpayment or Concealment of tramadol, Cannabis Sativa popular, Indian Hemp, and other dangerous drugs, , arms and ammunitions.
The consistent seizures of tramadol, Cannabis Sativa and other dangerous drugs including codeine, arms at various times at the nation’s Western Marine Command, the service Amphibious Command, Tincan Island port, Onne port, Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Cargo and diroko axis, speaks volume.
Compt. Oladeji may have made a bold statement when he told the Patrol, Surveillance and Checkpoints Leaders and their officers to be proactive in their operations and spare the low profile smugglers found carrying one or two bags of the Asian countries of Thailand and Indian Par boiled rice around the border areas. ‘’Do not catch such a person, let alone drop the one or two bags of rice from the vehicle conveying it for transfer to the Government Warehouse, Ikeja. Allow the low profile smuggler, who is hungry and looking for what to eat with his family to go.
The FOU, Zone A, Customs helms man, who was said to have made it clear to the enforcement officers that their target should be on the VIP smugglers carrying commercial quantities of foreign rice of 50Kg .each, ostensibly for sales in the Nigerian market.
Notwithstanding that the Patrol, Surveillance and Checkpoint officers have heeded to the Area Controller’s advice to stop making seizures of one or two bags of foreign rice of 50 Kg each, from the low profile smugglers around the border Communities who may have wanted to cross it through any of the inappropriate routes in Lagos, Ogun, and Oyo, particular, the FOU, Zone A, enforcement officers may not have failed in their anti-smuggling ddive under the Leadership of Compt. Oladeji as they were said to have given a good account of themselves by giving the VIP smugglers a little bit of their own medicine to swallow.
A source had confirmed that in the last two months or therabout that the FOU, Zone A, Area Controller, who had had refocused the Command’s anti-smuggling operations, had intercepted and seized thousands of bags foreign rice, 50 Kg each, that could easily be loaded in 50 trucks of 600 bags each, in different parts of the south western region. From Ipokia, Imeko Afon , Yewa North in Ogun state to Saki and Iseyin axis in the Oyo state, the story is the same: FOU, Zone A, blockade of the routes used by the smugglers and fraudulent importers from the Lagos seaports of Apapa, Tincan Island, Port Terminal Mutiservices Limited, PTML and Kirikiri Lighter Terminal , Phases I and II.
The FOU, Zone A , Customs boss was said to have released three trucks loaded with goods believed to have been purchased from Idumota and the Auto parts Trade Fair Complex, Aspanda, Lagos, as the traders were able to provided all the necessary receipts to show where it was bought in agos .This may have convinced the traders that the FOU, Zone A, Area Controller is out to promote genuine and Legitimate trade and not out to make things difficult for them in this trying times.
Given the situation in the country, may have informed why the Nigerian Government had given approval for massive importation of foreign rice and other food items into the country in next 150 days thus giving CG Adeniyi’s men a breather to tackle the smugglers and further bring them to their knees. That much was confirmed by Mohammed Mahmood Abubakar, the minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on July 10, 2024.
The minister who may have spoken the mind of the Nigerian President may have gladdened the heart of Nigerians when he declared that in implementing the new FG’s policy that allows the massive importation of food items into the country is expected to force down food prices,no duties, fees and Value Added Tax, VAT, would collected from the importers with in the 150 days allowed for such imports.
Good as the policy may be, Akinwumi Adesina,a former minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, during former President Goodluck’s Administration and now President African Development Bank, AfDB, may have faulted the government policy insisting that it ‘’it would destroy the country’s agricultural sector’’.
The AfDB, President, who had revealed that a the Bank, together with the Islamic Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, had provided the North American country of the United States, US,$520 million to support the establishment of Special Agricultural Processing Zones that would also allow private agribusiness to establish industries that process and add value to the country’s agricultural commodities may not have seen any reason for throwing the country’s Land borders and seaports open for fod importation that would not attract payment duties, fees and taxes.
More revealing was the AfDB, claims to have also provided $134 million to Nigeria to help drive down food prices and inflation by significantly boosting local production of wheat, maize and cassava under the National Agricultural Growth Scheme which impact has not be felt on the economy.
The former minister who would want President Tinubu to take advantage of the Bank’s investments and support for farmers to show greater determination and commitment to achieving food self-sufficiency and incentivize private sector agribusiness.
He may have alluded to the fact that the FG’s decision to allow massive food importation would draw the hand of the clock back going by the projection of the AfDB that the size of the food and agricultural market in the African Continent would hit the $1 trillion benchmark by 2030.
The Bank had confirmed that it has proved$25 million in one of its current program’’ to transform agriculture in Africa, by providing high-performing agricultural Technologies’’ for 40 million farmers in African the Continent including Nigeria to ensure self-sufficiency in food production by 2030 in the Continent.
At present, the worry of many was that by throwing the Land borders and seaports open for massive food importation, the President who is desperate to win the heart of the people may turn Nigerian, the most populous country in Africa into a net importer of foreign Parboiled rice, wheat and maize that may go beyond the 150 days, whch had been set for it.
Until the Nigerian Government threw the land border stations sand seaports open to allow for massive food importation into the country for 150 days or five months, Compt. Oladeji, had confirmed that there have been a drastic decline on smuggling of foreign rice and other Contraband items including fairly used vehicles in, attributing it ‘’to the increased level of compliance by the importers with their agents to the government’s Fiscal Policy’’. According to him, before now the Command used to have 10.15 arrested smugglers in its custody but it is no longer the case.
Besides tackling the activities of Contraband smugglers, there are other high levels of frauds that are being perpetuated at the seaports which Compt. Oladeji and his enforcement officers had beamed their searchlight on over the last couple of months and had succeeded in intercepted some Containers, both 20ft and 0ft’’over alleged false declaration and non- payment of duty which were said to have been transferred to the Command premises for proper physical examination .
. Compt. Oladeji who spoke when the League of Maritime Editors paid him a visit on Monday, July 15, 202, had confirmed that guilty importers who had been issued, Debit Note, DN, had rushed to settle their indebtedness through their agents who stand the risk of losing their operating license obtained with the sum of N1.5 million to N2 million .
The calm looking Customs Comptroller, may have and taken advantage of his knowledge of the original Pre-Assessment Arrival Report, PAR, to ensure that the guilty importers were issued appropriate DN as a deterrent to other who might want to get involved in such fraudulent act in the future.
