By; RAYMOND TEDUNJAYE, Lagos
At least, 206,000 pieces of machetes imported into the country illegally have been seized by operatives of the Tin Can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), New Nigerian Newspapers has learnt.
The offensive weapons were said to have been imported without the end user certificate from the Office of the National Security Adviser.
The Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Command, Comptroller Olakunle Oloyede. made the disclosure at a media briefing on the achievements of the command in the first quarter of the year.
He also disclosed that the 2022 first quarter collection is N22.74 billion higher than the total collection of N112.69 billion realised same period last year.
The revenue increase translates to 20.18 per cent when compared with first quarter collection of 2021.
Comptroller Oloyede also showed seizures of 640 bales of used clothes; and 236,500 pieces of used shoes, among others, amounting to a Duty Paid Value of N1,048,810,569.
He explained that the command’s operations for the first quarter significantly aligned with the statutory responsibilities of the Service.
Oloyede said this was particularly so, in the areas of revenue generation, trade facilitation and enforcement/anti-smuggling activities.
On export, he said the total tonnage of goods exported through the command for the period under review was 71,014.4 metric tonnes with a total Free On Board (FOB) value of N56,205,901,295.
He equally said that in the preceding year, January-March 2021, the total tonnage of goods exported through the command was 44,502.9 metric tonnes with a total FOB value of N31,371,825,954.
“Comparatively, between January to March 2021 and 2022, the tonnage of goods exported through the Command increased from 44,502.9 metric tons to 71,014 representing an increase of 62.67 per cent.
“The FOB Value in Naira of the tonnage also increased from N31,371,825,954 to N56,205,901,295 representing an increase of 55.82 per cent within the period under review.”
He said that commodities exported through the command include copper ingots, stainless steel ingots and sesame seeds.
Oloyede also listed cashew nuts, cocoa beans, rubber, cocoa butter, leather, ginger and frozen shrimps among the commodities.
In the area of enforcement and anti-smuggling activities, Oloyede said that seized items include 145kg of Colorado (hemp) concealed in 2 units of Ridgeline trucks and 2 units of Toyota Corolla vehicles.
He also listed 206,000 pieces of machetes, 640 bales of used clothes, 236,500 pieces of used shoes, among others as part of the seized items.
Oloyede said that the seized items had a Duty Paid Value amounting to N1,048,810,569.
“The import of these products contravenes Sections 46, 478 161 of the Customs & Excise Management Act (CEMA) Cap 45 LFN 2004,” he said.
Oloyede said that the command was still facing challenges in the area of treatment of overtime cargo because of the non-implementation of the extant laws guiding uncleared cargo.
“Additionally, the lack of government warehouses at close proximity to the port has led to difficulties in logistics and handling cost,” he said.
On the 2022 fiscal policy, he said that a 90-day grace period had been given for the implementation of the new duty and excise rates.
“The Federal Ministry of Finance has recently published the 2022 Fiscal Policy with an effective date of April 1, however, with the 90-day grace period, it will take effect from June 1.
“As much as the Service is putting in the effort to make the necessary adjustments, we are experiencing minor delays in its full implementation because the system is not designed to be retroactive,” he said.
The CAC reiterated that modernisation has come to stay and that processes like VIN valuation system, Non Intrusive Inspection and other similar processes being introduced by the NCS were in line with global best practices to achieve simplification of trade procedures
Oloyede thanked them for their relentless effort toward strengthening the capacity of the service to perform its statutory responsibilities in line with international best practices.
He said that the command was optimistic that the e-customs agenda and deployment of non-intrusive technology, such as scanners, would help them achieve more.
Following the recent picketing of the Clarion Bonded Terminal by the 100% Compliance Team of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF) and his subsequent intervention, the Customs Area Controller, Tincan Island port command, Comptroller Adekunle Oloyede has set up a committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alleged missing containers.
Oloyede who disclosed this while fielding questions from journalists in Lagos today said that the 19 containers were allegedly missing as nobody could confirm that yet.
He recalled that when NAGAFF went to picket Clarion Bonded Terminal, the Chairman, Board of Trustees (BOT) of NAGAFF, Mr. Chidiebere Enelamah came to him and said that he was going to stop them from picketing Clarion and that they should write to him (Oloyede) so that they could investigate.
“I received their letter on Monday because I will not treat what is not official. When I got the letter on Monday, I set up a committee with the DC Admin as the Chairman. I have involved O/C Bond and even our legal adviser to look into this issue in one week and report back actually what happened to the 19 containers”, he said.
On allegation that the said 19 containers were carrying arms, he said, “nobody can say there are arms there. We know how to profile the exporter, we know how to profile the importer. We will go historical and from history, we will be able to know if the exporter or the importer are in that trade of arms. So, you have to give us time to officially look into this and get back to you.”
On allegations of incessant flying of containers in the command, Oloyede maintained that since he took over the leadership of the command, the management has not heard any case of container flying.
He continued, “But about two weeks ago, we had intelligence that some of the transire on vehicles that I approved, some vehicles that were not supposed to be part of the list were input into the list and I can tell you, six of the vehicles are in the Enforcement (Unit).
“Of course, we got them out and I took them to Enforcement and because of that, I arranged a meeting between the Five Star Logistics, the two terminals operators: Clarion and Classic and we entered into another Standard Operating Procedures for transire whereby every transire must come with landing certificate. Without that landing certificate, after one or two weeks, I will not sign any other transire to those locations again. That is the Standard Operating Procedures which we agreed upon and to fine-tune this procedure, we are also having a meeting of all stakeholders before the end of this week so that we could look at issues.
“Yes, there could be issues but we are on top of it. That’s why we could take six exotic cars infused into one of the transire and the they are with us in the Enforcement Unit.” the Controller said.
