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Steve Agbota, [email protected] 08033302331
The management of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) led by Col. Hameed Alli (rtd), has directed its Strike Force, an anti- smuggling unit of the Customs in the ports to examine goods not properly examined by ports resident officers warning that Customs Area Controllers would be held responsible for non-compliance with the new order.
The new directive was contained in a circular EII/2019/CIRCULAR NUMBER 002, titled: “100 per cent Examination of Cargo at the Ports.” The circular issued in April 25, 2019, and signed by the Deputy Comptroller-General, Mr. Augustine A. Chidi, on behalf of the comptroller general reads, “It has been observed that 100 per cent examinations of cargo at the ports are not done properly by the officers assigned to do so.
“Consequently, the following instructions must be carried out with immediate effect and area controllers will personally be held responsible for non compliance.”
However, the directive empowered the new Strike Force to reexamine goods in the port and make seizures where necessary without hindrance.
Since then, the decision has been stoking fire among maritime experts and clearing agents operating at the nation’s port over the new directive by the Service, for the establishment of Comptroller General Strikeforce qunit at the seaports, even when the Service explained that the team was only to intervene on suspected containers and not all.
The agents also called on the presidency to call the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) to order over the new directive. They said the directive pose serious hindrance to trade facilitation, free flow of trade and compounds the existing congestion and create unnecessary bottlenecks in the ports, which is contrary to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and World Customs Organisation (WCO) conventions.
Already, the examination bays at the terminals have been flooded by multiple government agencies. With the new directive in place, there were possibilities of congestion at the seaports. The directive could be inimical to the policy of ease of doing business in the port engendered by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo.
Speaking with Daily Sun, a technical expert, Lucky Amiwero, said the directive was not in line with the principle of trade procedures, which contravenes the Kyoto and FAL conventions.
He said the Kyoto convention is World Customs Organisation (WCO) convention on harmonisation and simplification of Customs procedures while the FAL convention is an International Maritime Organisation (IMO) convention on minimization, harmonisation and simplification of maritime traffic within the port and stay of ship and cargo.
According to him, when looking at the two conventions, what the Customs is doing is in contravention and that is not the best for Customs because they are duplicating issues.
He added: “The Customs cannot be bringing in Strikeforce into the port. What is Area Controller doing there? What is Valuation doing there? When you talk about Strikeforce coming from other areas, they are part of the Enforcement Unit and the Enforcement Unit is a small arm in Customs.
“Customs is all about import and export. Customs is to implement all trade related matters in the country both import and export.
When you have an Enforcement Unit in the area, you bring in another Enforcement Unit, you bring in another Unit and another unit, it contravenes the convention and you are a contracting unit to this convention.”
He said Customs have Federal Operations, CIU, Valuation, Resident officers and Strikeforce all these things are not in line with Customs formation. He added that it is uncustoms and there is no where in the world it is being done.
He said: “I think there is need for Customs to really reform the system. The Customs don’t have tools. One of the tools under the UNCTAD Kyoto that they actually designed are scanners and all of our scanners at the port are dead.”
He explained that the reform kit of Customs is talking about simplifying, minimising and harmonizing procedures and what they are doing now is duplicating, increasing, multiplying procedures.
Amiwero, who is also the National President of National Council of Managing Directors of Customs Licensed Agents (NCMDCLA), disclosed that the scanners in nation’s ports today are not supposed to be for revenue but are supposed to take care of security, human traffic, drugs like what they have in America and other countries in the world. He added that the thing they should have done was to regig their system and repackage it because any system that is not working with scanners cannot be effective.
While also speaking with Daily Sun via telephone interview on the issue, the National Pubic Relations Officer of NCS, Joseph Attah said the circular order only reminded Area Controllers to honour alert on suspected containers and to allow Strikeforce to jointly examined suspected containers not all containers.
Strikeforce has nothing to do with day to day activities of Area Command, which is prerogative of the Customs Area Controllers. He said that the Cordinator of the Strikeforce, DC Abdullahi Kirawa knows his bounds and won’t go beyond his brief.
