Ban on vehicle importation through Seme border still in force – Customs
By Emma Ogbuehi (With Agency Reports)
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has debunked some media reports that the Federal Government has lifted the ban on vehicle importation through the Seme border.
The media was awash last week with reports that the Border which had remained closed by the former administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, had been opened for importation of items including used vehicles, commonly known as Tokunboh.
But in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Seme, Lagos State, Customs Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Seme Area Command, Hussaini Abdullahi, put a lie to the publications.
Abdullahi explained that the service had not made such a pronouncement at all, adding however that a proposal was written by some freight forwarders in that respect, to the Federal Government following an advice from Prince Ademola Adegoroye, the then Minister of States for Transportation.
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He said that the former minister had visited the border to inaugurate some projects sometime in February when the freight forwarders put up a complaint to him about how the ban had affected them.
He added that the minister had advised the freight forwarders and members of the border community then to put their requests in writing.
The Customs spokesman said that a recent visit by the Director of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transportation, Ibrahim Musa, only confirmed that the letter by the freight forwarders had been received and acted upon by the ministry by forwarding it to higher authority.
NAN reports that Seme border was among the four land borders reopened by Federal Government on December, 16, 2020 by the then Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed.
Before reopening the four land borders, the Federal Government had on August 21, 2019, ordered the closure of Nigerian borders to curb smuggling of goods and weapons. (NAN)
