Business

Seme Customs identifies gaps of revenue loss to Benin

Mohammed Jibo and Hameed Ali

…Treated 1,314trucks o load of

goods

…Seizes N98.9b worth of Cannabis Sativa

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The Seme Command of the Nigerian Customs Service(NCS) has not hidden it’s displeasure over the roles being played by the Benin Republic authorities to frustrate it’s efforts to boost revenue of the country.

Benin, the neighboring country of Nigeria at the Seme border- Krake, area has held on to the policy of mandating all goods transiting through Benin to pay some duties and levies, which is contrary to the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), protocols and international transit agreements.

In the words of the Area Controller of Seme Border, Comptroller Bello Mohammed Jibo, actions of Benin has dwindled the revenue strength of the command even as it collected the sum of N718 million from January to early September 2021.

The war on smuggling activities in the area, Jibo Said the onslaught has continued to yield results as the command intercepted 10,309 jerry cans of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) equivalent to eight tankers load of 33,000 litres each which were smuggled out of the country to Benin Republic.

Reeling these gaint strides out to newsmen last week Tuesday, Jibo said the seizure was part of 1,244 various smuggled goods intercepted by the Command from January till date with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N886million.

He said the seized items including some petroleum products packed in sacks, he therefore noted that smugglers are deploying new tactics as they now resort to using sacks to smuggle PMS.

Other seizures made by the command within the period under review according to him include; 109 units of smuggled vehicles out of which 37 are presently in court awaiting judgement, 10,706 bags of smuggled rice, 44 bags of NPK fertilizer, 608 cartons of frozen poultry product, 784 rolls of cigarette and 11 jerry cans of vegetable oil.

Some of the recent seizures of the Seme Customs Command being displayed by Comptroller Jibo and his men

There were other item which include 843 cartons of tomato paste, 605 pairs and 12 sacks of used shoes, 17 sacks and seven bales of used clothes, 19 pieces of used tyres, 153 sachets of herbicides and 1419 packs of different drugs and other general merchandise.

The successes so far the area commander attributed to the dedication and commitment of officers, collaboration with other security agencies as well as a cordial working relationship with stakeholders and the host communities.

He stated, “The continuous robust stakeholders’ engagements, vigorous intelligence gathering through collaboration with the host communities, especially the youths, security agencies and the determination, and commitments demonstrated by the officers and men of the Command in ensuring compliance to extant government fiscal policies as it relates to import and export has immensely brought about the successes.

“It’s of worthy to note that the Command processed and exited exported trade volume of 635, 149.23 metric tons with a Free On board (FOB) value of N15.6billion within the review period.”

In the period under review, he stated that the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) value stood at N78million while the command treated and exited 1,314trucks of goods under the ETLS scheme.

The grand total for both seizure and revenue during the period under review is N1.6billion. The Seme Command has handed over the 3,447 parcels of Cannabis Sativa (Indian Hemp) concealed with sharp sand to the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The weed he said was one of the largest single arrests made by the Command along the Seme Badagry axis, has a total DPV N98.9million.

“This is not the first time we are handing over such a seizure to NDLEA. Sometime in July this year, we handed about 232 parcels of marijuana to NDLEA.

” Sometimes in August also, We made some arrests and were equally handed over to NDLEA. And today, we are handing over 3,447 parcels of cannabis sativa,” he said.

The NDLEA he urged to continue with the ongoing investigation to ensure that the suspects are brought to book, the Customs boss assured that the command will continue to ensure an expanded coordination with all other security agencies to minimize level of smuggling along the Seme border axis.

The Seme Commander of NDLEA, Udotong Essien, however assured that the agency would carry out further investigation to find out those involved in smuggling cannabis into the country through the area.

Essien, stressed that with the banditry and insecurity plaguing our dear nation, drugs are associated with the problem.

He emphasised, “If this is allowed to go into the society, you can imagine the damaging effect on our economy. The Customs has done its part and so we are going to take it up from there to bring those behind these things to book to serve as deterrent to orders