By Suleiman Anyalewechi
South East Region traders and other business actors have raised the alarm over a serious danger posed to the free movements of goods and services, as well as their business concerns by the alleged unbridled extortionist tendencies of the men and officers of Nigeria Customs Service.
They have singled out Nigeria Customs’ incessant raids of South-east Markets and mounting of hundreds of checkpoints on various roads and routes within the region and SouthSouth neighbouring states as one of the causative factors driving up the costs of essential commodities in the country.
Consequently, they have appealed to all relevant authorities to wade in and halt the alleged insensitive and negative operational tactics of the Service, adding that they may be forced to resort to self help to save their businesses from collapse.
The continued extortionist and exploitative activities of Customs according to the President of Abia state Amalgamated Traders Association ASMATA ,Sir Alphonsus Udeigbo have negatively impacted on the conduct of businesses and free flow of goods and services within the Southeast and Southsouth geopolitical zones, contributing in no small measure in pushing up prices of essential commodities far beyond the reach of the ordinary people.
But the authorities of Nigeria Customs say all their operations in the region ,just like in others are strictly guided by adherence to rules of engagement and extant laws establishing the outfit.
Chief Udeigbo who is also the Chairman of All Chairmen of Aba Markets, one of the known commercial hubs in the Southeast in an exclusive interview with the Source on Saturday March 2 2024 ,noted that the ugly situation if not checked may force the Traders and other victims of the alleged Customs unethical practices to engaged in a show down with all relevant authorities.
“Look ,the situation is unbearable. You can’t believe that from Benin to Onitsha, Owerri to Aba , Aba to such places like PortHarcourt ,Yenagoa Uyo,most of which are less than 100 km there are close to 20 Customs Check points on each road .
These checks points are manned by men and Officers from different units of the Service .
Sadly, at each of the Check points traders and other business men and women are forced to part with between N20,000 and N30,000 per truck load of goods.
The status of the goods you are carrying ,whether contraband or not ,for them does not matter . What matters is that you have to ” settle” .
Now, there are to problems here. One ,the goods are goods that have been officially cleared at the various ports of entry ,with approved duties paid .
The second issue is that these goods are mostly legally approved goods (not contraband) whose owners have paid all the approved duties .
The implications of these unethical and unprofessional conducts of Customs officials are many, but in the main it pushes prices of goods unnecessarily up .
The reason being that after undergoing harrowing experiences, including extortions on the road, the traders in a bid to break even will increase prices. In the end, it is the common man that will finally bear the brunt.
Our position is also that men and officers of the Customs should leave the various South East Markets alone . They should go to their lawfully assigned areas of operation which are the borders and Ports .
It is unfortunate that ,besides subjecting us to unnecessary extortions on the roads they equally raid markets every now and then .
We are in touch with our traders colleagues across the Southeast region, this is the bitter experience of traders be it in Onitsha ,Enugu, Aba ,Abakalika ,Owerri and Southsouth ..
Many businesses are being seriously threatened by the negative activities of these Customs operatives . They even have some accomplices and aides from among the traders, whose job is to feed them with the dates and time of movements of goods. It is all that bad” Udeigbo lamented.
However ,in an interactive session with The Source ,Spokesperson for the Abia/ Imo Area Command of Customs Jerry Attah ASC while debunking allegations of multiple checkpoints ,said the service officially operates two check points at Benin and Cross River within the zone.
According to him ,besides the two, the service only operate Patrol/ Surveillance teams whose task is to ensure that contraband items of any nature do not find their way into Nigeria Markets.
“Here our operations are strictly under taken based on credible intelligence .And it is to guide against loss of revenue by the federal government,and also prevent the influx of prohibited goods and items into Nigerian markets. We have the mandate to do so .
We are not aware of alleged extortion and misconducts by our operatives ,because no body has officially approached us on that .
If we receive any complaints ,j can assure the public. that service will address same. In any case ,some of these unsubstantiated or informal complaints are mostly from some people who are not into genuine businesses.” Attah noted.
