Deputy Comptroller of Customs and Coordinator of Comptroller General of Customs Strike Force, Team A, covering the South West Ahmadu Shuaibu spoke to reporters in Lagos. theNicheng.com was there.
He reiterated his unit’s relentlessness in the anti-smuggling war and stated that efforts have been stepped up to make seizures of smuggled inside the ports using a combination of customs aided technology with intelligence.
Q Give us an overview of your seizures and a brief on your first half report
These are most of our seizures for the strike force zone A. You will recall that this particular briefing started earlier at the training college Ikeja, where we showcased some of our anti-smuggling exploits that were made during the month under review, and equally, the figure that was rolled out to you, representing the month of June, the second quarter of the year, and as well as half-yearly report. So it is an enlarged briefing comprising of these three periods.
Here in Ikorodu, behind us are four containers loaded with wood. You will agree with me that the Federal Republic of Nigeria approved the National Forestry Policy in July 2009, prohibiting the export of wood and allied products.
This is as a result of government in its wisdom may be, largely due to environmental factors, as well as the social implication. We all know the effect of cutting trees on our environment. It leads to environmental degradation and desert encroachment.
If not checked, we will wake up one day and realize that there is nowhere to hide. It is believed by the government that if one tree must be cut, two must be planted as a replacement. But it is not like that in this case, this is the indiscriminate falling of trees to foreign countries benefit against our environmental and economic interest.
Gentlemen of the press, let us spread this message that if those woods are properly harnessed in this country, it will give rise to the employment of our teeming youths and the professionalization of artwork, and value will be added so that in essence, all these foreign furniture will be a thing of the past.
As a country, we have the raw material, resources and we have the expertise and capacity to turn this into finished products; which can create business for investors and employment for the youths.
We must be on the same page to move this country forward. In other climes, prohibitions are strictly adhered to. The law is already there, why are we flouting it? At any level we are, we are part of the government. So we should help the government ensure that fiscal and agricultural policies that impact positively on the economy are strictly adhered to. We wish for smugglers to have a change of mind so that together we can build a very vibrant and strong economy.
We have footwear as part of the seizures here, which is also prohibited. Our leather industry in this country in Aba, Onitsha and Lagos can produce better footwear than these ones.
Let us use all our resources, capacity and energy to build our economy. But by such importation, we are helping to grow other countries’ economies. If we build our own, we can conserve and preserve the foreign exchange. If we can do that the economy will improve, production activities will improve, and security and the general aspects of life will also see a great turnaround.
It may also interest you to know that we have taken another drive-by seizing some of these goods right inside the seaports. Once we have credible intelligence and the officers in our ICT unit discover it through the manifest, they block it and the area is informed and we go for examination. If there is contraband, we seize it at the port
With this connection in the past two weeks, we have been able to seize two containers carrying synthetic carpet grass. We will continue to do that, to take the anti smuggling war to another level, so that it will get to a time when we will not need to gather like this again to showcase many seizures.
If these things are nipped in the bud right inside the seaport, what we will then do is to seize them there and evacuate them to the warehouse so that at the end of the day, we will have our statistical report to prove our case.
Q. What is the value of the wood seized?
I have already given that figure before. The seizure of this wood is due to actionable intelligence. Our officers went round based on intelligence and got them at different locations heading towards the port. We cannot seize this wood at Ijebu Ode; because it is premature. But once this gets to Apapa, it means it is ready for export. And anything that is gotten at that level is to be seized and forfeited to the government.
For the purpose of emphasis, the value of goods seized for the month of June amounted to over N561,432,000. The total DPV of these goods stood at N664,563,200. The total value of goods seized for the second quarter is 836,413,000. For the half-yearly report, the total DPV for six months stood at N1,649,480,846; that is from the operation.
The ICT component of strike force Zone A equally raked in N760, 916,853 for the month of June and for the second quarter of 2021. the ICT unit of the strike force also collected from demand notices altogether for the first and second quarter of the year, a half-yearly report of the entire *1,895,593,861.
This is a huge feat due to the determination, honesty and hard work of these young, vibrant and patriotic Nigerian officers. You will equally agree with me that the stakeholders, importers and their agents who were made to pay this amount will not go home and clap for us.
They will surely have their misgivings, but we are more than determined to serve this country. We are privileged to have been given this responsibility to serve, and we are going to do it diligently until we exit the service.
We want you to help us tell them that Nigeria is our country, and they should join hands with us so that we can move this country forward together.
Q, Your seizures are coming mostly without casualties on the side of the customs and snugglers. For the first half of this year, how were you able to achieve a casualty free anti-smuggling operation?
Yes, it has been casualty free for about 10 months now; no injury sustained or death and no negative report. We can’t say it is by our power or doggedness, but all thanks belong to the creator, who made the climate very good for us, and also the hard work and obedience of the operatives who have all out and working diligently as ambassadors of Nigeria.
We know we are law enforcement agents, and it is only people you will enforce to follow rules and regulations; tactically telling them to do the right thing and understand that this country belongs to them. That if they pay this money and stop smuggling, it is good for all of us. That is the reason we have been having it cool with our operations.
Most of the seizures you have showcased today are export bound seizures which is very unlike what we are used to in your press briefings. Are you attributing this to ignorance or one of those nefarious activities of unpatriotic Nigerians?
No, we decided on our own to change the narrative. Every time we call you here we show you seizures from imports without requisite seizure from export prohibition. We decided to beam our searchlight on yet another area of importance; export and export prohibition.
We rely heavily on the law, which is the approval given by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2009, that forest policy must be maintained. You and I know what we are facing erosion, bush burning, illegal poaching and environmental degradation in some parts of the country.
The ecosystem needs to be protected, so all of these reasons are why we changed our approach, an area hitherto not delved into so that we can make people know that wood is banned from exportation.
What is your message for those who still want to go into this line of business?
They should have a change of heart! They should change their minds and join forces with us to achieve this task. They will even make more money when they buy these materials locally.
Restiveness and banditry will be a thing of the past and the country will go back to the period when there was no restiveness and other social vices if we all chose the path of being law-abiding
