The Seme border command of the Nigeria Customs Service has commenced compulsory scanning of all inward-bound commercial vehicles; especially luxurious buses.
Confirming the development in a statement issued last week, the Customs Public Relations Officer, Seme Border; Mr Selchang Taupyen, explained that the measure is aimed at ensuring standardization of trade facilitation and also to protect the territorial integrity of Nigeria.
According to him, ”all in-coming transport vehicles with particular emphasis on luxury buses must be subjected to scanning procedure as it is done with trucks and containers”.
He said that the new measures were aimed at eliminating all barriers that serve as impediments to effective trade facilitation viz-a-viz the ECOWAS protocol along the Lagos-Abdijan corridor.
He quoted the new Customs Area Controller in charge of Seme border, Comptroller Mohammed Aliyu as charging the committee on vehicles trapped at the border, following Federal Government’s ban on vehicle imports through land borders to properly verify documents and authenticate duty payment before releasing them.
The customs boss, however, described as low the N234.26 million revenue generated by the command in April.
He attributed the low revenue to the persistent low level of economic activities in the country.
The controller also disclosed that two suspects arrested on May 4 for being in possession of suspected hard drugs had been handed over to the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
“The accosted suspects were in possession of four wraps of Indian hemp; a pack of Rizzler; five cartons of Amoria mixture; and three SWAN packets; all suspected to be illicit substances,’’ Alliyu said.
He assured that the customs would continue to exemplify the spirit of synergy and inter-agency co-operation among relevant security agencies at the border.
Aliyu said that the service would continue to perform the statutory role of securing the nation’s busiest land border from trans-border crimes such as smuggling, drug trafficking and human trafficking.
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