Zika Bobby
Abdullahi Dahiru Kirawa is Coordinator, Nigeria Customs Service Strike Force, whose activities dominate discussions among Customs agents and importers.
The team, according to him, is committed to ensuring trade facilitation, prevention of smuggling and recovering of government revenue.
He told newsmen that insincere agents and importers are not safe from Customs Strike Force Team unless they change their ways of doing business.
Functions and duties of the strike force
The Strike Force Team was formed by the management of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) headed by the Controller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), as a team that will be the third layer of defence in terms of Customs operation after the Area Command and the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) respectively.
It is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that there is compliance with laid down rules, regulations and ensure extant procedures are properly followed in all Customs operations and that the primary objective and mandate of the service in terms of revenue generation and the facilitation of legitimate trade.
This is in addition to ensuring the suppression of smuggling to the barest minimum is achieved. The role of the Strike Force Team with that of the FOU is complementary to that of the Area Commands. We are to synergise, collaborate and cooperate to achieve the goals set by government for the service.
Quelling anxiety that strike force came to make things difficult at ports
I did mention that one of the key functions of the service is revenue generation and facilitation of legitimate trade. That said, the strike force team is there to ensure compliance to rules. Therefore, the team as a body is to ensure that these things are done or enforced to the letter and to ensure that encumbrances in terms of checkpoints within the hinterland and other things that will prevent the smooth movement of goods and services are not construed by any Area Command within the hinterland and even within the border area. That means we are to enforce and ensure facilitation of legitimate trade.
Licensed Customs agents and importers worry over directives
Only those that have skeletons in their cupboards have reasons to fear. The Strike Force Team is to ensure that all those that are compliant with the stated rules in our statute books have no hitch at all in their operations. The team has been making and will continue to make our processes faster and easier for persons and companies that make sincere declarations and pay correct Customs duties to government. Those who make insincere declarations with intentions to cut corners and shortchange government by not paying correct duty will have us to contend with.
Overview of duty collection between January and April 2019
Within the first four months of this year, we have collected close to N1 billion as revenue that could have been lost. I tell you confidently that from January till date, we have realised N788,338,072 from Demand Notice (DN) issued in Zone A alone. When I say Zone A, I mean the South West area only.
We have made several hundreds of seizures from various commands that include containers from various ports and also contraband across the border areas.
Managing crisis arising from taskforce activities
Certainly, the Strike Force Team’s operations are mainly intelligence and technology-driven. We do not operate in isolation. We operate with due diligence and cooperation within the various units of the service, especially the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU) that provides us with credible intelligence that leads to some of the seizures we have been able to make.
Furthermore, the efforts of the commanders and various officers and men of the Strike Force Team go a long way in sourcing information from credible sources from various individuals and good Samaritan that we have been able to use this intelligence to achieve our results and the results are there for everybody to see.
Therefore, I want to enjoin members of the public and our colleagues that are privileged to hav certain credible information to avail us with them so that together, we will achieve the goal set for us by the service. It is a collective responsibility, not only for the Strike Force Team, but also for anybody that is concerned or related with Customs operations like the stakeholders, clearing agents, importers and exporters. Our doors are open so that together we will save this country in terms of security and safeguarding the economy through suppression of smuggling and ensuring that there is compliance with laid down rules and policies of government so that it will be better for everybody.
Compliance level between Eastern ports and Western ports
There are more ports in the western part of the country than the eastern part. The volume of trade is much, therefore, you expect more crimes from the western zone than the eastern zone because there are more activities going on here than there.