Both the officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and members of the maritime business community operating in the logistics supply chain are sore worried by the proliferation of illegal task forces within the customs which run foul of the World Customs Organisation’s standard operating system, thereby hampering trade facilitation and the ease of doing business in the nation’s sea ports, airports and border posts
By Innocent Chukwu
On Saturday, July 8, 2023, Mr Camilus Amajuoyi had worn fury all over his countenance as he responded to questions thrown at him by his interviewer, Steve Ayorinde, on the Arise Television Morning Show.
Amajuoyi is the President of the Alaba International Market Electronics Dealers Association Lagos. He had appeared on the programme that morning to react to the issues affecting his members after the Lagos State Government had demolished part of the market buildings allegedly blocking drainage in that area of the state.
The Alaba market electronics dealer had suddenly become vociferous when he began to react to the stress his members go through in bringing their containers from the Lagos ports to the market due to what he called multiple taxation imposed on the containers by officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in the cause of clearing them out of the ports.
He decried the situation where they have to face multiple task forces exacting different taxes from the traders. Amajuoyi lamented further that his members clear over 500 containers daily which land at the market, but issues of multiple taxation and area boys who plunder them along the way were becoming unbearable.
Amajuoyi had called on the new Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, to come to their aid before they would be forced out of business.
Amajuoyi’s pains are being shared by some customs officers who maintained that their conscience restrain them from feeling untouched by the distressing situation under which cargoes are cleared from the ports occasioned by multiple customs task forces which block containers indiscriminately collecting different amount of money before letting go.
Inside sources claimed that some of these task forces and teams were illegally created because according to them they do not exist in customs laws and also operate contrary to the operating standards of the World Customs Organisation (WCO).
A credible source said, “With these multiple task forces the Nigeria Customs Service is going against the universal standards of the WCO. How can the process of clearing a container be as long as it is today? Some of these task forces are illegal and they are doing the same jobs almost”.
Inside sources insisted that some of the illegal task forces were non-existent until the former CGC, Hameed Ali created them with the aim to checkmate illicit clearing processes and at the same time block revenue leakage.
But now, according to investigation, the menacing activities of mostly the illegal task forces have become a clog in the wheels of customs operations as they now work at cross purposes.
Many sources disclosed that Ali allegedly got report of the illegal activities of the teams he created to help shore up customs revenue, but he was reluctant to probe into their untoward operations due to the military style with which he ran the NCS.
But many called on Adeniyi who is a career officer to look urgently into the activities of the illegal task forces. Some of these task forces, Tentacle gathered, include the Strike Force Team, Customs Police, Compliance Unit, CGC’s Monitoring Team among others.
Also, there are the legitimate task forces created by the Customs law which include the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Provost Marshall, Enforcement Unit, Valuation Seat and the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU) as well as the Query and Amendment Seat.
It was learnt that some of the illegal task forces are a mere duplication of the statutory ones which makes their operations cumbersome and to be clashing against themselves. For example, both the FOU (legal creation) and Strike Force (Hameed Ali creation), are doing the same jobs, mounting road blocks and intercepting containers at the same locations.
The Customs Police is alleged to be a duplicate of the Provost Marshall and the Enforcement Unit, the Compliance Seat is a duplication of the Customs Processing Center (CPC) and Query and Amendment Seat.
Fred Ajuzie, a former president of the Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Apapa Port Chapter, alleged that it was because the statutory task forces failed in their primary assessment that compelled Ali to create the illegal ones. But he also noted that what Ali should have done better was to strengthen the existing task forces even though they were derailing instead of creating multiple illegal task forces that exist only to line their pockets with money got from alleged illicit deals.
Tentacle made effort to contact Chief Superintendent of Customs (CSC) Customs National Public Relations Officer (NPRO) via his GSM phone for him to comment on the story, but his line was not connecting as at the time of filing this report.
