By Stephen Ubanna
Not many people had expected Muhammed Uba Garba, Comptroller , Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Seme Command and his officers, to make any appreciable impact in revenue collection for the government this year , let alone, intercept or make remarkable seizure of Contraband goods .
This is because of the various public holidays that had declared by the overnment and observed in order for the Professor Mahmud Yakubu, led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct the last general election , which fell between between February and March , 2019.
The general election led to the closure of the Borders with the neighbouring West African countries of Benin Republic , Niger and the Central African country of Cameroon across the country, thus taking a toll on transit cargoes delivery to their importers with their agents.
The situation at the Seme Border , which, analyst believe handles transit cargoes import, may have been worsened by the 4- Month old Border Drills across the country as scores of trucks –laden goods running into millions of naira in unpaid duty are still being trapped at the Seme-Krake joint Border between Nigerian and Republic of Benin.
Note that if President Muammadu Buhari, had allowed the transit cargo importers to take delivery of their cargoes before giving the nod for the closure of the Borders with the neighbouring Benin Republic , Niger and Cameroon, the revenue collection of the Command may not have been too bad.
As a prelude to getting it right, particular, in the area of ant-smuggling operations, Muhammed was said to have developed new strategic policy measures to tackle the menace of smuggling activities at the Border Area, irregular migrations and other trans-border Crimes with the support of the Management staff.
He was said to have also stepped up the Command Community and public enlightenment on the dangers of smuggling and its adverse effect on the economy . This may have informed why he urged the economic saboteurs to take advantage of the various government empowerment programmes on Agriculture such as the anchored borrowing on rice farming, Growth Enhancement Support Scheme, GESS, Government Enterprises Enhancement Programme,GEEP and several other programmes to key into legitimate earning to avoid running into troubles with Customs personnel on the road.
Recall that prior to the closure of the Borders with the neighbouring countries across the country, most of the transit cargo importers were said to have processed their import documents , which facilitated payment of their duties but could not take delivery of their goods because it was caught up by the government policy.
That much was confirmed by Muhammed, the Area Comptroller, on enquiry Geofry Onyeama, minister of External Affairs.who was to have led a ministerial team on the orders of the Katsina state born Nigerian President to the land Border recently to evaluate the impact of the Border Drills.
A Statement by Abdullahi Onowa, an Superintendent of Customs and the Command spokesperson, confirmed that in the last 11 months, the Command had had collected duty of About N5 billion for the government or 76 % of the 6 billion target set for the Command by the Customs Headquarters, under the close watch of Hameed Ali, a retired Army Colonel and Comptroller General, NCS.
One area in which the Command was said to have made appreciable impact was in anti-smuggling operations as it refused to be stamped out by the Border Drills personnel. Given an insider information, Onowa, the Command spokesperson, disclosed that the Command intercepted and made 1,302 seizure of Contraband goods with a Duty Paid Value of about N2 billion.
Given a breakdown, he said the Command made a seizure of 28,180 ‘’50’’ bags of the Asian country of Thailand parboiled rice, equivalent of 47 trailers load , with a DPV and levy of about N778 million. These are foreign bags of rice that could have been pushed into the Nigerian market through the creeks within the Badagry and Badary west local government areas and its environs but were impounded by Muhammed’s boys. Indeed, if the Thai rice had been pushed into the Nigerian market it could have distalised the local rice production which is already gaining ground .
Going by the World Bank report, Benin’s economy is heavily reliant on the informal re-export of foreign rice and transit cargo trade with Nigeria, which maritime analysts believe account for about 20 % of its GDP or national income. Until the closure of the land borders across the country last August, the Bank says, about 80 percent of the Thai par boiled rice and other imported transit cargoes are destined for Nigeria.
Recall that the President had banned the importation of rice through the land Borders into the country on January1, 2017, which was extended to the seaports in June 1018, as no letter of Credit, LC, had been issued to any rice importer between June 2018 and now by the Central Bank of Nigerian, CBN. This because the ministry of Finance, batptised ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, has not given any approval for theissuance of the such an LC.
But this appear not to have stopped the informal trade , forcing the government to formally close the borders across the country with the neighbouring West African countries on August 26, 2019. The World Bank reports shows that Benin has recorded an astronomical rise in imports of par boiled rice from Thailand, described as the world’s second largest producer. In 2018, alone, the country was said to have imported close to 2 million metric tonnes of Thai par boiled rice but the cargo was said to have been re-exported to Nigeria through unapproved routes.
At present , virtually all the rice warehouses in Benin, including the ones close to the Seme/Krake joint Border were said to have been filled to the brim as several other ships loaded with the cargo are still on the high sea awaiting signal from the Harbour Masters to sail to Cotonou Terminal, Benin or Bollore port, the two major ports in the country in order to discharge and sail back to port of origin.
More worrisome was the smuggling of petroleum products from Nigeria to these countries through the Creeks or by land. Muhammed, the Seme Customs Comptroller, may not have given the smugglers a breather as he was said to have led the Team that raided Owode and its environs in Badagry West local government area recently. It was a major breakthrough for the Customs Comptroller who discovered that virtually all the 110 filling stations and 12 surface Tanks spread in the bush in the area are not really serving the people needs but ostensibly established for bunkering and smuggling purposes.
The Command was said to have impounded 2,109 , jerry Cans of 25 litres each of petrol between January and Novemeber , 2019. Much of the Premium Motor Spirit, popular , petrol, were said to have been intercepted during the recent operation at the Owode axis led by the Customs Comptroller. The value of the seized Jerry Cans of petrol was put at about N N7.7 million.
The petro l smugglers, may have gone underground as Muhammed appears to have beamed his search light on them as they could no longer practice their trade as the Creeks have become a no go area because of the presence of Seme Customs Personnel, Border Drills and other security operatives.
Other Contraband goods that were said to have been impounded by the Command within the 11 months under review include 1,100 Bales of second hand clothing worth about N 70.17 million, Sugar, 40 x50kg, valued at about N0. 600 million.00, 185 sacks of shoes, belt,, slippers both new and used valued at about N27.6 million. This is in addition to textile materials, wrappers, poultry products , vegetable oil, merchandise and narcotics.
Given the inter-agency elationship, the Command was said to have handed over a total of 1,992 parcels of the hard drugs and narcotics to the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, for further investigation and destruction.
An elated Muhammed who could not hide his feelings believe that without the support of Ali, the Customs Comptroller General, the Command could not have achieved such a laudable feat within the period. He described the Customs boss as a’’ great motivator’’.
