The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has explained that calling for the removal of its Federal Operations Unit (FOU) is akin to saying that the service should not have an enforcement arm.
The National Public Relations Officer of the service, Deputy Comptroller Joseph Attah, said this in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos, while reacting to a proposal by a member of the National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarder(NAGAFF) to carry out a social media campaign tagged #End FOU, #End CGC Strike Force, which is aimed at scrapping the Customs FOUs.
Recall that the Tin Can Island chapter Secretary of NAGAFF, Mr. Godfrey Chukwuemeka Nwosu had last Wednesday described the anti-smuggling fight of the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Col Hammed Ali (Rtd) as a scam which has over years been bleeding the nation and innocent traders and their agents mercilessly, while enriching a circle of Customs personnel and their cohorts.
He also described the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) and (CGC) Strike Force as mere instruments of oppression and extortion, even as he compared both bodies with the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
In the petition, Godfrey also said “We are appreciative that SARS in the face of the enthusiastic #EndSARS social media campaign, the squad has been undergoing reforms to check the excesses of the operatives”.
He also disclosed that the Tin Can chapter of NAGAFF intends to spearhead similar campaign which according to him, will be tagged, #EndFOU, #EndCGCStrikeForce, with the aim of instigating reforms to curb the highhandedness and exploitative tendencies of the Customs operatives.
But reacting to this, the Customs image maker told our correspondent that no amount of protest can completely take away customs from the ports, even as he said that some people would prefer that there is no Customs as an organization in the country.
He charged Nigerians to ask the person calling for the scrap of the FOU his rationale for such a call.
“I don’t think that any strike can completely take away customs from the ports. It appears to me that some people would prefer if there is no customs as an organization existing in the country”, he said.
“But the world over, there are customs administration to handle issues of import and export and customs operations is not limited to revenue alone, we have the enforcement arm, excise unit and we also have the marine unit. When you are saying Federal Operations Unit should be out, it means you are completely saying that the customs should not have enforcement unit. And I think that it will make sense for every well-meaning Nigerians to examine the intention of the person who would want to have customs administrations that have no teeth to bite”, he added.
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