Sharp Practices Informed Customs Strike Force - Alli

Tayo Oladipupo |

Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Colonel Hameed Alli has said underpayment at the seaports and land border areas as well as suppression of smuggling across the country informed his formation of Headquarters Strike Force (HSF).

This is the first time the Customs boss would make public reasons why the strike force was established.

According to him, the Task Force has recovered millions of naira for the government through issuance of Demand Notice (DN), on suspected cargoes intercepted by the officers and men of the task force in Lagos and other parts of the country.

It was learnt that Abdullahi Kira, a Deputy Comptroller and the National Coordinator of the HSF, who is working closely with the Customs Ruling Centre officials at Abuja because of the nature of their job which is technologically and information based, had stopped many containers released from Apapa, the nation’s premier port, Tin-can Island , among other ports once it gets security alert of underpayment.

A clearing agent who spoke with our correspondent but does not want his name in print, disclosed that the Apapa office of the Strike Force, has been turned into a beehive of activities by agents whose clients’ Containers have problems of under-declaration, under-valuation and under-payment.

This is because they are forced to invite the ad-hoc team members to carry out an examination of the Containerised cargo to ensure that what was declared by the importer was what was loaded in it and that appropriate duty was given to the importer based on what is contained on the Bill of lading to pay.

As a result, Kirawa the National Coordinator, hardly had any moment of rest whenever in office.

At several times when our correspondent visited the office of the HSF in Apapa, the coordinator is hardly in the office as he shuttles between Lagos and Abuja from Monday and Sunday.

The team has succeeded in suppressing rice smuggling in the Chad Basin axis which had reflected in the local rice production in the region.