The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS Apapa Command controller, Comptroller Musa Jibrin has rebuffed the timeworn belief that foreigners particularly, Asians are not allowed by Nigerian law to perform the function of cargo clearing in the country. Some stakeholders in the maritime sector have lamented a situation whereby foreigners are allowed to clear goods at the nation’s ports, in the process taking away jobs meant for Nigerians.
The proponents of this cause have intensified the indigenisation campaign, so much so that pressure is being mounted on the federal government to totally bar foreigners from clearance of cargoes at Nigerian Ports .
But Musa told some journalists under the aegis of the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria, MARAN, in his office that baring foreigners from the clearing chain is almost impossible because the nation’s extant laws allow companies operated by foreigners in the country to clear theirs goods on their own.
As a result of this window of opportunity, Comptroller Musa said, foreign companies operating in the country can clear their cargoes without going through Nigerian licensed agents.
Musa further stated that the essence of Ease of Doing Business policy of the Federal Government is to provide enabling environment for foreign direct investment, FDI in the country to thrive.
Comptroller Musa stated thus “There have been talks about foreigners around the customs house, in our import and export activities, we are dealing with both Nigerians and Non-Nigerians, and most of the industries we as a nation have licensed them, some of the companies that operate in Nigeria are owned by foreigners, we have assembly plants for Keke Napep and cars assembly companies owned largely by foreigners”
According to him “The customs service does not license foreigners as a clearing agent, but they license companies and they grant self-clearance to such companies, any company can be given self-clearance, it is now the prerogative of such company to decide on whom they send to process customs documentation
If a company is owned by a foreigner and the clearing outfit of that company has foreigners, definitely you cannot rule out seeing a foreigner following up an entry, it is not our prerogative to tell them not to come forward, ” he stated.
The controller further added that the law also has a provision for an importer to hire a custom agent to help him clear a consignment, therefore the owner of the consignment may be working from behind while he contract the responsibility to the clearing agent.
The recent raid by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on popular Nite Club, Club 57, Ikoyi, Lagos on Friday, May 11, 2018, arresting over 12 suspected internet fraudsters ( Yahoo Boys’), has continued to generate controversies. While some applauded the anti graft agency, others felt otherwise.
Does government have any moral justification to blacklist these people, most of whom were forced into the act by the uncondusive environment in the country it created with the continued bad governance of every administration? Does government have the moral justification when its actions are anti people, as it continues to arrogantly disobey and disregard the laws of the country?
Does it have the right to label anyone as fraudster when everyday, its agencies departments and firms are ripping the people off? Sometimes when it is not directly involved in the rip-off, it is seen as providing security to those ripping its citizens off. These are some posers by many Nigerians.
In his reaction, Chief Executive Officer, 360Group, Noble Igwe, has called on the EFCC to arrest more fraudsters.
Noble Igwe on his Twitter page disclosed that Record label owners, car dealers and club owners in Lagos are major fraud fronts in the country.
According to him, there is no difference between those who steal with the gun and those that steal with computers. He said that people who steal with computers should also be referred to and treated as armed robbers.
“Record label, Estate/ Property Business, Car Selling business. The Above are major 419 /fraud fronts in Nigeria.
“EFCC needs to have a waiter stationed at every club within Lekki & VI. After last night,club owners are going to record low sales and Uber drivers will be busy tonight.
“Online stores and stores on Admiralty/Fola Osibo are used for money laundering.
“Armed robbers on instagram are regarded as G boys, but in reality, theirs is a different type of stealing.
“People steal and then turn around to blame the government for making them criminals.
“Anyone that defends a criminal is a criminal and while we have a list for people advocating rape culture, we should also have one for such people. An armed robber is an armed robber. You are a thief armed with a computer,” he twitted.
But in a chat with Sunday Adioha, a Sociologist, he agreed with Igwe but further asked whether government should not be included in the list of Yahoo people.
‘ True, Yahoo of any type is stealing and robbery. If this is so according to Igwe, government is also a Yahoo organisation.
‘ How can you explain where electricity consumers are forced to pay for the light they do not enjoy? How do you explain how the Distribution Companies (DISCOs) estimated billing system and the crazy monthly electricity bills? How can you explain their refusal to meter their customers after several government directives, as they continue to rip-off electricity consumers monthly? Is that not fraud. What type of yahoo is greater than this?
‘How can one explain governments refusal to pay their workers even after several bailouts, and stats continue to owe months of salary arrears in a country where minimum wage is a paltry N18,000? What do they do with the monies set aside for such? Is it not fraud?
‘What about those of pensions and gratuities of the elderly that had served this county meritoriously in various capacities? Even after crawling to government to pay them, they are heartlessly left to suffer, and sometimes die without receiving the minute sums. Is this not fraud? Is it not Yahoo?’
Adioha believes that the EFCC merely satisfied who paid them for that raid. ‘ Are they telling Nigerians they do not know who the real Yahoo boys are and where to find them? They have just been given a free licence to make money from so many illegal arrests that will likely follow,’ he added.
The African Democratic Congress, ADC as a party will after all not enjoy the fruit of endorsement by Nigeria’s former leader, Olusegun Obasanjo in the mould of massive movement to its fold by disechanted politicians from other parties, particularly APC and PDP.
Far from being the new “beautiful bride” in the country’s party politics following its adoption by former President Obasanjo’s Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM), it has emerged that ADC, one of Nigeria’s fringe political parties will merely serve as a negotiating tool for the Obasanjo’s group in a further effort to birth an unprecedented grand coalition of parties that will eventually metamorphose into a mega party with 2019 presidential election and defeat of President Muhammadu Buhari as targets.
Credible sources told the Magazine that having publicly announced his exit from the PDP and retirement from partisan politics, the former president is avoiding direct interface with his former party which as a former ruling party and now the biggest opposition party, it has been agreed by coalition stakeholders, has a nationwide following, solid structure and reach to drive assemblage of forces against the APC.
Uche Secondus, National Chairman of the PDP
However, the former President will continue to work behind the scene, leaving the ADC to engage in open interface with other parties, particularly with the PDP.
It has been gathered that so far, the PDP, Social Democratic Party,SDP, Labour Party and dozens of other parties are enthusiastic about the coalition and subsequent merger. However, All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, with South east and as a foothold and stronghold is said to be undecided. APGA evokes certain sentiment and emotion among many in the region, even among non- APGA members, especially when the name of late leader of the defunct Republic of Biafra and party’s National leader, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu is weaved around it (APGA) hence APGA leaders are said to wary of the party losing its pro- South east identify.
The party leaders are reportedly insisting that APGA will go into a coalition and merger only if it is guaranteed that the South east will play a commanding role in such arrangement and allotted prime political offices in the subsequent zoning arrangement.
To ensure that the coalition, within the shortest possible time seamlessly take off the ground and coalesce into a mega party without any bickering within its fold, in view of the nearness of the 2019 Presidential election, party insiders hint that the PDP, as the chief driver of the project, has agreed to shed its current brand. A new name, motto and symbol, the Magazine gathered, are in the offing and will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
For example, The Source was informed that in the place of “ Power to the People”, the new Motto will likely be “Power to Nigerians”. The umbrella symbol may likely give way to a house or both combined but with a picture of people in the house and under the umbrella to depict the rebranded party as true home to, and shelter for Nigerians from diverse ethnic, cultural and religious stock.
Meanwhile, not less than 10 governors, 35 Senators and 150 House of Reps. members, mostly former PDP members but now in the APC, are reportedly waiting in the wings to defect to the rebranded PDP and by extension to the soon to be born mega party.
President Buhari: Forces are arrayed against him.
Having called the PDP unprintable names before jumping ship, many of the intending returnees, it has been learnt, have made it clear to the erstwhile ruling party that their political careers will be in jeopardy and integrity in tatters if they return to the PDP in its present form.
With effect from may 11, First nation Airline is expected to suspend all flights, commercial or charter, since the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, wielded the big stick over the weekend against the ailing airline. The exit will further deplete local operations, though safety issues also are raised due to continued operations of the airline generally linked to the Nation Group of companies, with alleged connections to an All Progressives Congress national leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
With Air peace and Arik struggling to make inroutes into the African subregion and with international confidence weakening towards Medview Airline, the local aviation ought to have received a boost but it is not so. Many have insufficient fleet, and some just managed to satisfy the NCAA regulation that a domestic Airline must have at least two functional aircrafts if it is to venture into commercial operations. And that was the point where First nation defaulted.
After the last Dana Air crash at Iju near Lagos the resultant public outcry jolted the regulatory agencies into scrutinizing the regularity of routine maintenance checks, grounding airlines that has not been up to date in the maintenance. First nation, which had four Aircrafts but were managing them for local flights without regular c-checks, Voluntarily grounded their own fleet so they can send them for checks. With the grounding, it took only the initial two that went for tests to come back to life, and one filed the tests. So it has only one functional Aircraft with which it was running commercial operations before the expiration of their Air operating license. With the expiration, however, they could only manage the certificate of airworthiness for one aircraft and was therefore permitted only to do charter flights.
Now the NCAA hammer has fallen on it with the current indefinite suspension, after, according to Sam Adurogboye, the Authority’s image maker, they have been warned several times. The License, however, will be restored when the airline shows willingness to comply with extant regulations.
The exit of First nation will increase passengers’ nightmares at the airport, with increase in flight cancellations and delays. And the unethical practice of pilots doing more hours than regulations required will increase, to earn more allowances. Crew members will also be stressed since most local airlines cannot recruit when they can not pay salaries of their staff.
Ikechukwu Nkemakolam a Lagos based business man went to his bank at Allen, Ikeja, to withdraw money for the weekend but was given mutilated naira notes of twenty naira and one hundred naira denominations. He protested to the cashier that the naira notes were too dirty and demanded that it should be changed. The Cashier claimed that there is nothing that could be done about it because it is only the dirty naira notes that are in circulation in the country for now. The N100.00 notes is perhaps the dirtiest of the denominations and the foreign media are making caricature of the Nigeria currency.
Nkemakolam has every reason to protest. This is because he attended a burial ceremony of a close friend’s father the previous week in Lagos Island and found invited guests spraying the bereaved new naira notes of the denominations of N200.00, N100.00 and N50.00.
He saw young ladies who were holding bundles of new naira notes in the denominations of N1,000.00, N500.00, N200.00, N100.00 , N50.00 and N10.00 notes which were sold to unsuspecting Customers who needed lower denomination to spray the bereaved.
He has been told by friends in the past that the only place where new naira notes could be spent in the country are either at burial ceremonies or parties. But he had never had the opportunity of witnessing it until he saw it life at a burial ceremony at Lagos Island.
The aggrieved Nkemakolam was said to have changed the twenty thousand naira collected at the bank which was in the N1.000.00 for the N100.00 naira notes bundle but the young lady making the change was said to have taken one thousand as commission. He cried out but the lady cautioned him that if he is not ready for the deal, he is free to collect back his back his money and go. It was then it downed on him that there is a syndicate in the bank who are making brisk business with new naira notes to indict the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, currency Department of being ineffective.
Dirty Naira Notes
The new naira notes deal may have said that much when she confirmed that they buy it from their sources in the bank, who are mostly Branch Managers. She disclosed that all the Commercial banks operating in Lagos are guilty of it, noting that they see it as a source of making more money for the bank operations.
The selling of the new naira note by bank officials to customers may have gotten to the ears of Godwin Emefiele , the CBN, Governor who reached out to the Currency Department to find solution to the naira abuse before it gets worse.
Isaac Okorafor. the CBN acting Director of Communication posits that there was no basis for preponderance of dirty and mutilated naira notes which is in the country , blaming the Commercial banks for sabotaging its efforts at replacing the mutilated notes with new ones.
The CBN acting Director of Communication disclosed that it has enough lower denominations of the new naira notes that could go round the country but the banks had merely been circulating the dirty and mutilated naira notes because of the cost of sorting out the unfit naira notes and returning it to the apex ban for re-issue.
Given an insider information, Okorafor confirmed that several factors account for the worn out naira notes which are in circulation in the country for no. . He cited abuse notes of the naira notes and attitude of banks which fail to return dirty notes to the apex bank for re-issue.
He noted that the problem became pronounced because ”lower denomination notes have greater velocity of circulation, an indication that it is frequently in use and therefore subject to abuse.
Okorafor furtherdisclosed that the apex bank had taken steps to replace the dirty naira notes in circulation across the country. One of the steps, according to him in mopping up the mutilated naira notes in the system was the reduction in the amount it charges for sorting the dirt notes for clean ones from twelve thousand naira to one thousand per box.
He revealed that the initial reduction in sorting of the new naira notes extended to the banks this year lasted three months. The reduction in charges granted to the Commercial banks to encourage them to return more dirty naira notes to CBN, was said to have started on January, 2, 2018 but ended on March 28, 2018.
The acting CBN Communication Director averred that the sorting charges, which used to be N12,000.00 had been reduced N2,000.00 per box after the March28 deadline when the CBN window was closed. He confirmed that the waiver granted the banks in processing the dirty and mutilated naira notes was was to encourage them to”. return unfit notes for re-issue” but regretted that response has not been encouraging
Another step , he said that had been taken by the apex bank in withdrawing the dirty and mutilated naira notes from circulation was the engagement of associations in the major markets across the country to encourage traders to change genuine dirty notes for new ones which Okorafor said would be at no cost to the traders.
The CBN was said to have started the use of the market associations promised would be engaged in witdrawing the dirty naira notes from circulation in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Kaduna and Kano leaving out Lagos, PortHarcourt and Enugu.
Perhaps, to give more dignity to the naira notes the CBN, has appealed to Nigerians to handle the national currency with care as it is a ”symbol of national identity and value which should be handled with respect”. The apex bank is right. This is because of the value attached to United States dollar, Euro and the British pounds as the international currencies are handled with caution world w-wide. take for instance the dollar which could never be squeezed into the pocket or purse . It is not surprising why these international currencies are always new despite many hands that had touched it .
The CBN may have to thinker with the option of protecting the local currency introducing jail terms for people who abuse the naira. This may give a sense of caution to Nigerians to handle the naira with respect.
Barely three weeks that Sani Madugu, former Comptroller, Ogun Command and Comptroller Enforcement at the Customs Headqarters, handed over to Agbara Ojobo Michael, a Deputy Comptroller, smugglers appear to be on the loose in Ogun state.
Agbara may have provided opportunity for the smugglers to give him the first baptism of fire in the state when he said on taking over from Madugu, his predecessor that” that he will not make any promise until he must have inspected the Command, understand the terrain and identifies the threat.
He may have shot himself on the leg when he said,” the Customs policy is that ” no officer should stay too long in a particular place because if you stay long, you will begin to have friends and will not be as aggressive as you use to be” which may have given the officers the impression that he has a hidden agenda to introduce his own officers into the scene.
Unknown to him, his predecessor had carried out a major re-organisation of the Command which saw the removal of two officers to give a bite to the Command anti-smuggling operations. Seriki Abdullahi, who got a special promotion from Hameed Ali, a retired and the Customs Comptroller General as a Chief Superintendent of Customs over an arms seizure at Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A,and incidentally the officer in-charge of the Command Crack team was removed by by Sani, the former Comptroller of the Command.
Until , Abdullahi’s removal, he made a seizure of 2018 model of a Range Rover with a Duty Paid Value, DPV, of N51 million. the former Comptroller, was said to have also removed one Olumu, the Deputy Comptroller , Enforcement and replaced him with Deputy Comptroller Ochiba which may leave him with little or no changes to be made but to allow the status quo to remain and work with the team met on ground and giving them his own rules to follow to give a bite to the Command anti-smuggling operations.
Smuggled Truck Load of Rice From Oyo Axis
Hemay have assured Agbara, his successor, that the Command has a team of dedicated and committed officers that could support him to succeed in containing the activities of smugglers in the state. That was how far he could go.
On Saturday, May 13 , the suspected smugglers took the battle to Ilara, a border Community in Imeko-Afon local government area, between Nigeria and Republic of Benin . the border Community , according to source is very close to Abeokuta, the Administrative Headquarters of Ogun Command.
The smugglers may have decided to move a convoy of vehicles loaded with smuggled 50kg bags of foreign par boiled rice from Republic of Benin through Illara to Abeokuta to show to Agbara, the Ogun Command Comptroller , the likely threats he will face in the state and for him to put his axe right.
Armed to the teeth, the smugglers according to Lawal Oladimeji, a resident of Ilara , were ready to kill because they knew the consequence if caught in the act by Customs personnel on patrol. They knew will lose both the smuggled bags of rice and the vehicles to Customs killed in the process of resisting arrest
.Perhaps, having gotten to a point of no return with their smuggled bags of rice in a Convoy of vehicles at Illara, the border Community on their way to deliver the items to their sponsors in Abeokuta, they ran into a Customs patrol team, accompanied by ,soldiers, who were members of Operation MESA who applied all the tricks to dispossess the smugglers of the vehicles loaded with the smuggled bags of rice without a gun- shot but the hoodlums were said to have resisted it, leading to exchange of bullets.
Eye witness account confirmed that no fewer than four people were feared killed in the gun duel and six others injured. It could not be ascertained whether both parties in the gun duel experienced the casualty as Abdullahi Maiwada, an Assistant Superintendent of Customs failed to volunteer information.
To show that he was not top of the incident , he was reported to have said, ” I learnt there was an interdiction between our men and smugglers at Illara, a border Community when the smugglers wanted to move bags of rice in their vehicles out of the town to their receivers ”.
It would be recalled that on Saturday April 14, 2018, Abdulraheed Abdulsalam, an officer attached to the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Lagos Roving team headed by Jack Okpabi, a Chief Superintendent of Customs, now in-charge of the Command Rapid Response team, was abducted these fireworks men at Sango Otta , Ogun state. The hoodlums may have escaped with the Customs officer without confrontation because the team had no soldiers or police back up. The team may have gone out on operation based on available of information received of smuggled bags of rice hidden in an area, dreaded by soldiers and police men including Customs patrol to raid because of what may come of it. This is because lives would be lost as the suspected smugglers in the area are described as killers because of their fierce looks after taking tramadol drugs and India hemp.
But Jack , regarded as a fearless officer in Customs circles braved the odds to take his team to the area but was unlucky to lose one of his men to the ruthless smugglers, who sees smuggling as a matter of life and death. The FOU, Zone incident may have thought other Comptrollers of the FOUs across the country and land border sations never to send out patrol teams on anti-smuggling operations either based on classified information or on routine patrols without the involvement of soldiers from the Operation MESA, and the police to effectively confront the smugglers and come out without results. It is not surprising why the Ogun Command patrol team at Ilara border Community could dispossess smugglers of their convoy of vehicles loaded with foreign rice.Rice traders and importers confirmed the trend has worsened because of the high tariff and 70 levy on imported rice into the country by the government.
A Customs source confirmed that rice imports from the Asian countries of Thailand and India had significantly dropped. Take Tailand that use to flood Nigeria ports with rice exports, between 2014 and now , the Magazine found the trend had changed because of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, policy which which was made public on June 23, 2015, that that it would no longer provide foreign exchange, for 41 items, including rice imports into the country.
From the peak 1. 23 million metric tons in 2014, it dropped to 23.192 metric tons as at November 2017. For the past 18 months, the CBN , was said to have stopped issuing Letters of Credit, LC, to rice importers and those who have had opportunity of buying ffrom their oversea Customs by sourcing for forex from unofficial sources to buy from their oversea suppliers find it difficult to pay the 70 percent duties and 70 levy They had no option but to divert their rice cargo carrying vessels to Republic of Benin and other ports in the West African sub-region which find to Nigeria through unapproved routes in Ogun, Oyo, Lagos, Kwara, Sokoto, Kano, Jigawa and Borno states, Cross river states among others.
Curiously enough, rice imports through Republic of Benin in particular in the last 18 months had been on the increase due to the lower tariff. from 805.765 metric tons recorded in 2015 by at the country’s seaport at Cotonou, it move up astronomically to 1.65 million metric tons as at November 2017 and had continued to increase on a monthly basis since beginning of 2018. The gains of Cotonou port is also the gains of other countries seaports in the West African subregion, leading to the suspicion that the staple food item might have been smuggled into the Nigeria market through the land border.
Mohammed Abubakar, President, Rice Millers Association of Nigeria, RIMAN, hinted that smuggling remains the major problem in the rice value chain. Abubakar pointed out that rice smuggling is thriving because the price of the locally milled rice cannot be the same as that of smuggled rice because of evasion of duty by the importer. He is right. Already there are indications that some four rice milling Companies which had been so hard hit by the high tariff and the 70 percent levy on rice are almost being compelled to close shop because of drop in patronage by rice farmers.
The milling firms hard hit by government fiscal policy measures include Veetee Nigeria ltd, Stallion Group, Dana Group and Olam Nigeria ltd. There are fears in both official and unofficial circles that if the government fails to review its fiscal policy measure on rice to attract low duty and levy as obtained in Republic of Benin to encourage legitimate rice importers and dealers, it may work against its lofty objective of to improve the sector of proposing the establishment of about 20 rice processing mill plants across the country.
Ibilola Sholaja, Vice President, Rice that insufficient of Nigeria rice Distributors Association of Nigeria, RIDAN, had said one of the factors responsible for rice smuggling. Muda Yusuf, Director General, Lagos Chambber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, corroborated Sholaja’s views.
In spite of Federal Operations Units, FOUs, across the country, particular ,FOU, Zone A, to stamp out rice smuggling in the south west, Yusuf disclosed the market share of smuggled rice in the region and other parts of the country was still bigger than the share of locally produced rice.
Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, governor of Kebbi state and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Rice, PTFR, had made it clear to those that care to listen that the mandate given to the Task Force is to ensure that Nigeria is self sufficient in rice production instead of depending rice imports.
As a prelude to achieve the stated objective , The Kebbi state governor may have raised the hope of rice millers when he disclosed of government’s plan to reduce the interest paid by them on loans. The millers had asked for reduction on interest on loans to sustain the tempo of rice milling in the country. he admitted that what Nigerians want now was not about making subsidy available on rice production but making it affordable and accessible such that Nigeria rice could be as competitive as the imported foreign parboiled rice into the country.
Giving an insight into a close- door meeting with the RIDAN officials recently, the PTFR Chairman explained the rice distributors are interested in selling Nigeria produced rice because it is nutritious and help to provide employment to the teeming unemployed Nigeria youths.
As officials of the Nigeria Customs Service, NC, battles to contain the activities rice smugglers across the country , RIDAN, members may have promised of their readiness to assist the government revenue and anti-smuggling agency in stamping out smuggled rice in the Nigeria markets .
This is a good news to Kemi Adeosun and Audu Ogbeh, ministers of Finance, Agriculture and Rural Development respectively, only if they can fulfill their promise. There had been such promises in the past by the Rice Millers and Distribution Association of Nigeria, RIMDAN, to Abdullahi Dikko, the former Comptroller General of the NCS. the Association bought branded Hilux pick up vans, with the inscription RIMDAN, which was donated to Customs to help in the fight against smugglers.
The Association did not stop there as it was giving out classified information on rice smugglers to smugglers and how to track them . they may have relaxed in supporting the Customs with information to track rice smugglers as most of them are said to be members of the rice smuggling ring.
It is not surprising why all the efforts made by Muhammed Uba Garba, Comptroller, Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, in the south west and other and his counter parts in Kaduna, Owerri, and Bauchi and otherComptrollers in the land border stations involved across the country appear not to have made any appreciable impact.
take for instance, Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states, where the Command patrol and Surveillance teams had made spectacular seizures of trucks load of rice which should dampen the enthusiasm of the smugglers to continue in the nefarious business because of the loss but they are still swarming into the illegal business like bees, meaning that they are either corporate or VIP smugglers who have the financial resources to go into full scale rice smuggling.
Until the tail end last April, there was no sign that the Nigeria Customs Service , NCS, Board headed by Kemi Adeosun, minister of Finance are likely going to meet any time soon to consider the last November promotion Examination result of officers and men of the Service .
This is because Adeosun had never considered it necessary to call for the meeting of the Board even when there are pressing Customs issues to discuss .This may be due to time constraint and official engagements both within and outside the country.
A s a prelude to the recent meeting, Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and Comptroller, Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, was said to have forwarded to her office the list of senior officers shortlisted for promotion for her sighting and consideration. The list of the successful senior officers sent to the minister was said to have been accompanied with a covering memo to show the urgency of the matter and for the Board to meet to consider the promotion result.
the minister was said to have signed the original copy of the result sheet sent to her without alteration, waiting for the time she would have opportunity to call for the Board meeting to consider it.
The officers were said to have become impatient over the delay in the release of the result as they mounted pressure on the Comptroller General to do so. They have their reason to do so. Their counterparts in the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, who took their own promotion Examination conducted almost at the same time by the Mike Okiro led Nigeria Police Service Commission, PSC, had seen their result as released by the PSC and the officers who were due for another promotion examination had done it and the result had been released by the Commission without delay.
The delay in the release of the promotion may have robed off on the aggrieved officers as it showed on the Service revenue collection in the first quarter of 2018. The apparent drop in revenue may have forced the Customs Comptroller general to swallow his pride to reconcile his differences with the minister to give her the opportunity to put the NCS senior officer promotion matter as one of her priorities . He may have won the ear of the minister by his attitudinal change.
The Customs boss renewed cordial relationship with the minister may have give him the confidence to speak with boldness whenever confronted on the issue that the promotion result t would be released in May, 2018 . He was however not precise on the exact day. He may have been careful to commit himself because the minister could decide to change her mind.
But hopes for the release of the long awaited a Customs promotion emerged a fortnight ago when information leaked out that the minister had reached out to Ali, the Customs Comptroller General, intimating of a Board meeting to consider the Customs promotion issue.
She was said to have directed him to liaise with the Secretary of the Board ensure that members get the notice for the meeting in her office on Thursday, May10, 2018. The agenda of the meeting : consideration of the senior Customs officers Novemember, 2017, promotion result and ratification of the appointment of the ranks of members of the Management team who had been functioning on acting capacity. the notice for the Board meeting was said to have been drafted and quickly sent out to the Board members to prepare their and for the meeting and the agenda to be discussed.
Insiders told the Magazine that the Customs Comptroller General, heaved a sigh of relief when the continued to assure him that the Board meeting would hold as scheduled. He has every reason to worry. This is because the minister could decide to call off the meeting if she has more important issues to attend to at the presidency.
Perhaps to prove to the Customs helmsman that the bulks stops on her table, she was said to have slated the meeting in her office instead of the Customs Boardroom, at the Customs Headquarters, on the agreed date, Thursday, May 10, 2018. A source told the Magazine that as early as 9.00 am, the Board members were seated in the minister’s waiting room , waiting to be ushered into her office for the meeting.
The Ali led Customs management was said to have recommended over 2,000 senior officers to the ministers to be promoted to various ranks in the Service, from Assistant Superintendents of Customs 11, Deputy Superintendents to Comptrollers.
. A source told the Magazine that when the list was finally released by the Customs Authorities to the Customs Commands several names in the original approved for promotion were missing.
From the rank of Assistant Superintendents 1, to Deputy Superintendents, 13 names were said to have developed wings and from Chief Superintendents of Customs to Assistant Comptrollers, three officers, ,regarded in Customs circles as very popular because of their work which shows everywhere in the Service were mysteriously removed.
the cabal may have substituted the names with their cronies ostensibly to demoralise them and put them in the bad book of the Comptroller General as failures. From the Assistant Comptrollers to Deputy Comptrollers rank about five names were said to have been knocked out by the cabal .
The Comptrollers list was also said to have been tampered with the substitution of six names, fueling speculation that there is a strong cabal at the Customs Headquarters , Finance, Administration, and Technical Services, FATS, Department who are still manipulating the system for a fee.
The Board may have considered the list which was before it containing 1, 997 names of some senior officers as recommended by the Customs Management to be promoted without comparing it with the ministerial list to ensure that no name had been substituted. The release of the promotion which ought to put smiles on the faces of the officers may have brought tears to many, which may lower their morale to do the job.
Given an insider information of the decision taken at the Thursday Customs Board first meeting at the minister’s office in Abuja, Joseph Attah, a Deputy Comptroller and Customs National Public Relations officer disclosed that the Board approved the promotion of 1, 997 senior officers. The promotion , according to him was based on ”cumulative scores of annual valuation, written examination, oral interview, seniority and availability of vacancies”.
The break down shows that 49 Deputy Comptrollers scaled the hurdle to be promoted to the enviable rank of Comptrollers, 52 Assistant Comptrollers made it to the Deputy Comptrollers list while 33 Chief Superintendent got the Assistant Comptroller’s rank, leaving hundreds of them weeping. Attah, confirmed that Superintendents made it to the Chief Superintendent of Customs list and 372 Deputy Superintendents were moved to the Superintendents rank. Also promoted by the Customs Board on the recommendation of the management wer 452 Assistant Superintendents 1 to Deputy Superintendents but no officer made it to the Assistant Superintendent 1 rank. The Customs Spokesman also said that 380 Customs Inspectors were promoted to the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Customs 11.
The support Staff were not left out as they also benefitted from the promotion exercise by producing five Comptrollers,, eight Deputy Comptrollers and nine Assistant Comptrollers, This is in addition to nine Chief Superintendents, 19 Superintendents, 15 Deputy Superintendents, 15 Assistant Superintendents 11 and1, 1 and 79 respectively.
A senior Customs officer who spoke to the Magazine on condition of anonymity claimed that the Comptroller General may not have known that the original list of officers promoted in all the cadres promoted had been edited because of his trust on the officers around.
the aggrieved officer wants Adeosun, the minister of Finance to intervene by calling for the Customs list that was approved at the Board to compare it with the original list sent to her with a covering memo by Ali, the Comptroller General for approval about bout seven months ago.
the plot for the release of the senior officers promotion was said to have started last March, when Ali released the list of the promotion of 775 junior officers to various ranks. many believe that he released the junior officers promotion because it was within his powers to do so.
For the newly promoted senior Customs officers , the Customs boss was said to have told them to see it as a ”call to higher duties”, He further charged them to” commit themselves to the course of service delivery and build on the gains of the on- going reforms in the Service’ How that be achieved remain to be seen.
Until last Friday, May 4, 2018, there was no sign that the Nigeria Army Corps of Supply and Transport, NACST, saddled with the responsibility of transporting relief materials from Customs Formations across the country would be coming to the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos.
This is because of the news making the rounds that Hameed Ali, a retired Colonel and Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, had given the nod to the NACST to get its trucks ready to resume operation of transporting relief materials from the Customs warehouses to the Camps.
Ali, the Comptroller General may have been encouraged to invite the NACST to resume operation of transporting the relief materials from Customs warehouses across the country based on reports of what is found in the warehouse and reports of some of the Area Comptrollers intimating the Comptroller general of the quantities of rice, Vegetable Oil and second hand clothing and shoes in their warehouses ready for evacuation because of their limited lifespan.
Insiders told the Magazine that the Customs boss has a record of all the items seized by the various Customs Formations which are in a position to do so . This is because the Comptroller of every Customs Command which made seizures was expected to forward the details within 24 hours to the Comptroller General for.’ necessary action”.
A source at Customs Headquarters told the Magazine that Muhammmed Uba Garba, Comptroller, FOU, Zone A, and the arrowhead of anti-smuggling in the south west geo-political zone has kept to the policy of ensuring that seizures made by the Command were communicated to the Headquarters without defaulting.
A source at the Customs Headquarters confirmed that Muhammed, the FOU, Zone A, Comptroller had set the ball rolling when he informed the Comptroller general of the large quantities of seized perishable items in the Customs Warehouse at Ikeja , ready for evacuation.
the Comptroller may have taken the initiative to invite the Comptroller General because of the speed at which the various patrol and Surveillance teams of the Commands and at those at the approved Checkpoints in the south west which is under the Command jurisdiction were churning in intercepted goods from smugglers.
Smuggled rice donated to IDP camps by customs
The Source learnt the FOU, Zone Customs hardly waste time in mobilizing the Command legal Unit to prepare the necessary legal document to file a case at the Ikeja High Court to obtain judgement over the seized items. It was gathered that sometimes , the judgments had been in favour of the Command as evident in the Court Condemnation of the impounded goods and subsequent seizure and forfeiture to government.
It is not surprising why he has made more seizures of prohibited items banned from coming into the country from the land border areas such as rice, Vegetable Oil and Vehicles that any past Comptroller of the Command. A source confirmed that the items that had been prepared for evacuation by the NACST were items seized between July and September, 2017.
An insider account give the figure as 25,318 bags of ”50” bags of foreign parboiled rice, 3,366 of 25 litres jerrry Cans of Vegetable Oil and an additional 175 gallons of five litres variation.
With the approval said to have been given to the NACST to resume carrying of relief materials from Customs warehouses across the country to the established IDP Camps in the north east and Edo, in the south- south geo-political zone, by the Customs Comptroller General, Azarema. A., an Assistant Comptroller General, Customs Headquarters was said to have been mandated to write the Customs Area Comptrollers of Sokoto, Ogun, Seme, Kaduna/Katsina, Kano/Jigawa, Oyo/Osun, FOU, Zone A , Zone B, Zone C and Zone D, among others to gather their materials ready for the NACST to carry on arrival to their Commands .
Insiders told the Magazine that the Comptrollers did not hesitate in tidying up their records and waited for the final directive from the Headquarters to act. source confirmed that the FOU, Zone A, Command got its notification letter of evacuation of the seized goods in the Customs Warehouse, Ikeja by the NACST to the IDP cAMP in Borno state.
the Comptroller General may have allocated the FOU, Zone A, seizures to the north eastern state of Borno, which is where the government has the largest concentration of IDPs by the Islamic Fundamentalist group, BokoHaram.
The Source learnt that the Command got its letter on April 16, 2018, to prepare to receive the NACST soldiers and their trucks coming to take delivery of the Condemned items from the Customs WareHouse to the IDP Camp in Borno.
It was gathered that the Command had provision for seizures made between July and September comprising of 25,000 ”50kg bags of foreign rice, vegetable Oil, secondhand clothing and shoes. The Magazine cited some of the heavy duty trucks on Wednesday, May 11, 2018, at the Ware House axis, Ikeja waiting to load. The seized items in other Customs warehouses across the country were said to have been allocated to other IDP Camps in Adamawa and Edo states.
the decision to deliver relief materials to the IDPs Camps was not a Customs initiative. It was said to have been informed, according to a source to a Presidential directive to Ali, the Customs boss to supply all the seized rice and other items in its warehouses across the country that had been condemned and now government property to the IDPs in January 2016.
Joseph Attah, a Deputy Comptroller and Customs Spokesman had confirmed that between 2016 and 2017, 22 months to be precise, the Customs alone had supplied 252,666 bags of 50kg bags of foreign parboiled , which was loaded into 421 trucks and transported by the NACST to the IDPs Camps. This is inaddition to Vegetable Oil, second hand clothing and shoes. The supplied relief materials to the IDPs Camps was valued at about NN3.8 billion. The FOU, Zone was said to have made a significant contribution to supplies to the IDP s Camp within the period.
Many believe that the contribution of relief material that would be made to the IDPs would far greater this year. this is evident by the seizures that had been made by the Command comprising of rice, Vegetable and secondhand clothing and shoes within the last four moths which stockpiled in the Ikeja Customs warehouse.
When Aminu Dahiru, an Assistant Comptroller General of Customs and Coordinator of Nigeria Customs Service, Zone A, Lagos cried out loud last April that tramadol, one of the pain relief drugs allegedly processed with Codeine by an India Pharmaceutical Company and pushed to the Nigeria market was having a negative effect on youths in the north many people did not believe him. They dismissed his claim, insisting that it is like every other pain relief drug manufactured by Pharmaceutical companies in the country.
But Dahiru knew what he was talking about. He knew that tramadol has severe adverse reactions on users which include seizures and potentially fatal reaction called serotonin syndrome. This is in addition to the dangerous side effect of a fast heart beat, difficulty breathing, convulsions, lightheadedness, unusual drowsiness, confusion and coma.. . Youths in in the northern states of Borno, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Adamawa and Yobe who take tramadol are said to experience these problems .
Insiders told the Magazine that Muhammed Uba Garba, a one- time Comptroller of Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone C, Owerri, Imo state, and now Comptroller of FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, may have created much of the awareness about the dangers of tramdol to those who use it. He was said to have appealed to youths in Imo state and other states in the south east and south- south geo-political zones to keep away from tramadol because of what may come out of it after usage.He was said to have cited depression,, agitation, diarrhea, numbness in the extremities, ringing in the ears, hallucinations and paranoia among other effects.
A close source confirmed that he made a seizure of 903 cartons of tramadol which was said to have been loaded into trucks between March and May 2017. It could not be ascertained whether the drugs were released from Onne sea port in Port Harcourt, Rivers or the ports of Apapa or Lagos and trans-loaded from the Container into trucks to the east. The good news , however,was that the Command operational team never allowed the importers to push it into the market which may have fallen into the hands of young men and women who use drugs in order to be aggressive at all times..
The Magazine learnt that the tramadol importers did not find it funny as they came after the officer that was said to have laid the operation to intercept their trucks. Fully armed, they were said to have invaded their hotel premises at Owerri and shot sporadically at the team leader’s window but luck ran out of them as three of the hoodlums were said to have been gunned down.
The action of the drug barons may have forced the officer, who led the team to call for reinforcement from the Federal anti-robbery Rapid Response Squad, FARRS, to step in to calmthe situation.
Tramadol tablets: Dangerous to health
The attack by the drug barons on the officers may have opened Muhammed’s eye that there is more to it. It is not surprising when he was deployed to FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, May, 2017, his attention was focused much more on tramadol imports.
Having known that some Nigerian Pharmaceutical importers may have shifted base to the Asian country of India to import tramadol which are shipped to Nigeria through any of the country’s seaporthe kept a close tab at cargoes released at the ports.
Between July and December, 2017, the FOU, Zone A Command made a seizure of 3 449 cartons of tramadol at the first instance. The drugs were said to have been loaded into four Containers and trucks as well.
The repeated seizure of the tramadol drugs may have opened the eyes of other Comptrollers, particularApapa and Tincan Island port to tighten up the irnoose on cargoes imported through their ports to ensure that tramadol was not released mistakenly from the seaport. It is not surprising why both Apapa and Tincan Island had made seizures of tramadol in the recent time. Last January Apapa Command made seizures of tramadol whileon Tuesday May 8, Tincan can Island Command made a seizure of a ”40” and ”20” Containers load of tramadol Hydrochloride.
indeed, the seizure of tramadol in the country may have opened the eyes of officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration, NAFDAC, to go after Pharmaceutical Companies which produce drugs including cough syrups with codeine. Emzor Pharmaceuticals limited and two other firms became a victim. The Companies were forcefully closed down.
Giving reasons to justify the closure of the Pharmaceutical firms , NAFDAC officials had claimed that the Companies: Emzor , Peace Standard Pharmaceuticals ltd and OBIORAJ, were closed due to their due to their inability to provide required documents on their use of codeine during a recent. inspection of their facilities.
The repeated instances of tramadol seizures in the country may have forced the government to finally ban the use of codeine in the production of cough syrup by pharmaceutical companies in the country.This is in addition to the ban on the importation of cough syrups, containing codeine from foreign Pharmaceutical Companies. many see the ban as a big blow to tramadiol importers who may have placed order for the item from their oversea suppliers.
The three Companies that were closed down by NAFDAC, were said to have been indicted by a british Broadcasting Corporation, BBC documentary on the abuse of codeine -based cough syrups, especially in the northern part of the country. Already, the Customs has been given the nod to impound cough syrups suspect to contain codeine in the country.
Also, Isaac Adewale, a Professor and minister for Health was said to have given NAFDAC and other agencies of the ministry to be on the alert to forestal the banned drugs from coming into the country through the land border station or the seaport. They have one option, analyst suggest to regularly raid the Phharmaceutical outlets to assess what is in their drug shelves. .
For the ninth time, Ebola epidemics strike the Democratic Republic of Congo, bringing trepidation to the numbed psyches of Congolese. As at last count, seventeen people are said to have died in the outbreak as health officials battle a disease that conspiracy theorists insist are part of depopulation globalist agenda aimed at black Africa. The last time it was in Liberia, a Liberian American, Patrick Sawyer, brought it to Nigeria by registering as a participant in a health conference in Calabar, but was quarantined in a private hospital. He died of Ebola, taking with him the lives of senior medical personnel in the hospital.
The last time it was in DRC was in 2017.
“Our country is facing another epidemic of the Ebola virus, which constitutes an international public health emergency. We still dispose of the well trained human resources that were able to rapidly control previous epidemics,” their Health ministry said in a statement.
The narrative is that Ebola, which is characterized by hemorrhagic fever, is spread by baths which are healthy carriers, and monkeys. It is said to also be spread through bush meat, but it is silent on whether it originates from them.
With the current spread, fears of it spilling over to Nigeria heightened, with the Federal Airports Authority, FAAN, assured of safety through the Airports. According to the General Manager, Corporate Affairs of the Authority, Mrs Henrietta Yakubu, said that since the first recorded case of the virus in Nigeria, through an American-Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, the Authority has not relaxed its surveillance at the airports to forestall any re-occurrence.
“We have always had thermal scanners in our airports that monitor temperature of passengers and capture their pictures. We still have hand sanitizers in our restrooms too. When passengers walk pass the scanners, it registers their temperature. If yours is high, you are pulled aside for observation,” she said. According to her, all relevant agencies, including the Port Health Services have been mobilized and are collaborating effectively to ensure the safety of passengers and airport users at all time.
Easier said than done. The Federal government said it has directed security to be beefed up at Airports. But with the level this alleged disorganized blame-prone government appears less concerned about health issues, it is not clear what measures have been put in place to secure land borders.
Recently, the treat of cerebrospinal meningitis that is known to be a seasonal disease was difficult for the government to handle, with the usual excuses flying about while patients were dying. Analysts believe that if Ebola breaks out today, it will be a very bad case as all health workers are on strike. Health workers were also on strike in 2014 when it broke, but with the determination of the health ministry, in collaboration with World Health Organization, WHO, it was easily contained. “This time, many in the ministry are hoping for the epidemic for them to make maximum financial leverage from international donor organizations”, a source from the ministry told this magazine. Private hospitals maybe used again, but that can only work if the disease did not enter through the Northern part of the country, where the borders are porous and private facilities are few and far between.
