Ports: How Resident Customs Officers Are Dismissed, Demoted over Roles on Seizures, by FOU Operative

By Francis Ugwoke
Resident customs officers who fail to do a thorough job during cargo examination and evaluation for duties at the ports or border stations do so at great risks, officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have said.
The officials of the Service said releasing goods which are either contraband or those badly under-valued in which the government loses revenue was a big risk for any officer when such issues are discovered.
Speaking on the occasion of a training programme organised for journalists by members of The Powerful Pen Media Chapel held in Apapa on Thursday, Deputy Comptroller Garko Ali of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A said a good number of customs officers have been disciplined as a result of such issues raised against them.
Ali was reacting to a question on why there were reports that so many seizures recorded by the FOU were goods earlier released from the ports, a development that suggests that the resident customs officers either did not do their job well or looked the other way for the goods to pass and consequences if discovered.
Ali who represented the Controller of the FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, Deputy Comptroller Hussein Ejibunu explained that as good as many resident customs officers may be , one cannot rule out the possibility of bad eggs among them, adding that it was such people that were creating problems for the good ones.
But he said that no officer caught in such act of poor handling of goods at the ports is left unpunished by the headquarters of the Service.
Ali explained that such issues were among the reasons why some officers were either dismissed from Service or de-ranked by the Customs Service management.
He added that many a time, so many officers have been summoned to Abuja to go and answer queries related to goods they had handled for release at the ports.
He also explained that the duty of the FOU was to cross-check what had earlier been checked, intercept such goods where there are noticeable errors.
He added that where there are cases not requiring seizure but low duty, the Unit simply issues Debit Notes (DNs) to collect the balance of the duties unpaid by the importers.
On what has happened to suspects involved in false declaration, he said many of them have been dragged to court.
The Deputy Comptroller, Western Marine, Sahadu Adamu who represented the Controller, Western Marine, Comptroller Abubakar Umar, had disclosed that most of the seizures recorded on monthly basis were goods earlier released at the ports.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State, Mr. Leye Ajayi lauded the organizers of the training programme, adding that this was necessary for journalists covering the beat to know the operations of Customs Service.
Ajayi commended members of the Customs team who attended the programme for the educative lectures they offered to the participants.
He also used the occasion to call on every journalist in Lagos to be digitalized as necessary for coverage of any industry and society.
The President of Maritime Journalists Association of Nigeria (MAJAN), Mr Ray Ugochukwu, said the training programme was organized to educate members on the operations of the Customs Service.
Ugochukwu commended customs officers who attended and served as resource persons for making the one-day training programme a huge success.
He said the programme has enlightened many members, adding that it will be a continuous exercise on industry issues.

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