The Onne Port Customs Command of the Nigeria Customs Service clarifies its application of the 846 Code in vehicles clearance, insisting that there were no cases of abuse in whatever form
By Jude Nzennaya, Port Harcourt
The Area 2 Customs Command, Onne Sea Port in Rivers State has reacted to insinuations that the command had abused the 846 Code, describing it as a handiwork of those who are not favourably disposed to the operations of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Act, Excise and code.
Recently, the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, issued a Circular through the office of the Deputy Comptroller General (DCG) Trade and Tariff (T&T) to the effect that vehicles with standard VINs must not be cleared using additional Code 846.
“Consequently, all O/Cs Valuation and the Releasing Officers found in breach of the contents of this circular shall be severely sanctioned,” the memorandum had warned.
The special procedure with additional Code 846 was aimed at aiding the clearance of vehicles without standard VINs had been allegedly compromised indiscriminately by various Units of Customs formation such as Valuation, CIU and Releasing Officers and Compliance Unit.
Patriotic citizens who are appalled by the indiscriminate abuse of the 846 Code as
Standard VINs were allegedly cleared and released by the Command with visible alterations using the very 846 Code to release vehicles manufactured between 2017 and 2023.
Due to the alleged infractions, the Federal Government may have lost several billions of Naira to the deployment of the Code 846 by the wrong classification of dutiable goods with high duties payment and levies resulted in the declaration of such goods as used motor spare parts and other items in order to allow for short payment of high duties and levies.
However, the Command Public Relations Officer, T P Duniya refuted the allegations, saying, “Command under the watch of Comptroller Mohammed Babandede, has steadily upheld the tenets of professionalism in the discharge of its functions specifically in areas such as revenue collection, anti-smuggling, trade facilitation and robust stakeholders engagement to improve on compliance levels.
“As a fall out of these attributes, the command won the CGC Award for “Best Anti-Smuggling Command” in November 2024 with seizures of 80 X 40ft containers found to contain illicit medicines of about 75 million tablets of Tramadol (225mg each) and over 10 million bottles of codeine syrup by 100ml each. Apart from the interception of 844 pieces of assorted riffles and 112,500 rounds of ammunition. The command has been consistent with seizures of uncustoms goods including the recent interception of illicit pharmaceutical products with a duty paid value of over N200 billion.”
These are record-breaking seizures that were achieved through high levels of bravery, integrity, courage and patriotism.
On revenue generation, he said, “With an annual target of ₦700b, the command has so far collected ₦418,981,167,967.80 as of the end of July 2025. Within the same period in 2024 the sum of N374, 941,826,066.15 was collected. This represents 12 percent increase against the previous year; indicating a strong likelihood of attaining and surpassing the target set for us.
“This collection is as a result of meticulous checks, diligent examination, stringent anti-smuggling measures and application of interventions like demand notices (DN) where and when necessary to recover revenue from discovered shortfalls in declarations, valuation or misapplication of harmonized system (HS) Code.”
Comptroller Babandede maintains a hands-on approach in ensuring adequate prevention of revenue loss at the command and this is evident in the figures provided above. It is, therefore, allegations of economic sabotage and fraudulent practices at the Onne Port are not true and should be ignored.
“On 846 vehicle valuation system, be informed that it is a code used for nonstandard VIN by the Nigeria Customs Service in the processing of imported vehicles into Nigeria.
The Comptroller-General of Customs’ directive on the subject was not addressed to Onne Seaport Command specifically, but was a part of an internal measure to prevent revenue loss across all the Customs Commands.
“We are always open to applying checks where adequate duties are not collected by issuing demand notices. This is a standard practice and interventions using demand notices (DNs) have contributed to our overall collection. Also worthy of note is the fact that the Onne Port is not known to be a vehicle port because it has no facility for RORO,” he said.
