The Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) appears to be on a collision course with the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col Hameed Ali, even as the association has described the Customs boss to be too powerful than the Minister of Finance, a situation which they described as an aberration.
The association equally accused Col Alli of deliberately frustrating the 'Time Release Study' initiative of the World Customs Organization (WCO) a project which seeks to ensure that cargoes are released from Nigerian ports in a timely manner.
Speaking at an event to mark 365 days of the Tony Iju Nwabunike-led executives of ANLCA in Lagos last week, its Vice President, Dr. Kayode Farinto said that ANLCA has written petitions to the WCO, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and other international bodies on the recent activities of the Customs boss, which he alleged as not being in line with international standards.
The association subsequently called on President Muhammadu Buhari to remove Col Hameed Ali as Customs CG, and replace him with a career officer.
"We have noticed that we have a CG of Customs that is more powerful than the Federal Miniser of Finance, but it is supposed to be the other way round"
"Customs is supposed to report to finance, but we have a situation whereby it is customs looking as if they are too powerful. We have written series of letters to WCO on what Customs is doing, they should come and see"
"On Time Release Study, the intention of WCO is to see how long it takes for a cargo when it is dropped in the terminal to get to the consignees warehouse. After three months, Customs deliberately killed that idea, we have sent letters to WCO on this issue, we have sent letters to our ECOWAS partners to come and see what is happening in our customs whether it is in line with international standards"
"We are hereby clamoring for the next level of this government to give us a proper Customs officer. This would make us achieve a lot" Farinto stated.
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