In order to check mate the smuggling of cars through Seme Border from Cotonou , the Nigeria Customs Service recently entered into a pact with the Benin Republic, under the new arrangement, the Benin Customs is to escort all vehicles declared at their port and hand them over to Nigeria Customs for proper clearance. But in this interview, the Seme Border Chairman of Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA); Mr. Patrick Ozobialu told Shipping Position Daily correspondent; Dapo Olawuni that the arrangement is already being frustrated by big wigs within the Benin Republic Customs. He also talked about measures so far taken to contain the spread of deadly Ebola Virus.
What is the perception of stakeholders at Seme border on Ebola virus?
I don't know about the entire maritime sector, but I can speak of Seme border where I am the Chairman, we have had lectures on Ebola; because of this, we deliberately picked our general meeting where everybody was invited and health representatives came and organized a lecture, they lectured us more on Ebola. Apart from this, about two weeks ago we also organised one through Customs and all the security agencies, in an open field where we were lectured about Ebola and I think the people of Seme cannot come out and say they are not aware, we propagated it so high that we can say they are aware. We also bought the hand sanitizer and shared it to people, Seme border is the gateway to the country and it is closer to other countries, we also heard from the health workers that two people have been, or suspected to have contacted the Ebola disease from Cotonou part, so we used the medium as well to warn our people.
Who distributed the hand cleansers?
The association distributed some, the customs distributed some and the health workers distributed some, we have tried so much on it because if one person is affected it could spread to so many others. We also heard the rumor that the Nigerian government might want to close the border, so we are doing everything possible to make sure that the border is not closed, this is why we are giving the awareness to all our representatives.
For now, what is situation of things at the border?
We are working effectively, the port health are doing a lot of work at the border now, they now check people trying to come in through the borders, initially it was not like that, they have beefed up security, if you want to know, just go to the border and say you are from Liberia and you will see how everybody will be scared.
Do they have equipment to scan people coming in through the border?
Yes they have, they have their complete team from Lagos to supervise the area and everybody is working hard.
Who are these two people infected, are they known?
It is in Cotonou and not Nigeria, they said rumor came to them that two people were suspected to have been infected, but they have no prove of that, but they are using it to warn Nigerians. Moreover, I don't see the closure of border as a remedy to stop infection of Ebola, Seme border is just one border out of numerous ones around the country, we have a lot of them, Nigeria has porous borders, but as a gateway that we know that people are taking, considerable measures have been put in place. Nigeria and other countries just have a very thin line that demarcate the borders, this means you can put one leg in here and the other one in the other country. Secondly, there are families in Nigeria that have relatives in Cotonou living in border areas, probably it is their bread winner, how will you control them when regularly they go there to see their family for meetings. If you close the border, are you telling us that Nigerians at the other side cannot come in? We have a lot of Nigerians outside and they should come in when they want to come in. What I am appealing to the government to do is to put a considerable measure in place, because if they close the border we have several other routes, it will even become worse because people will be looking for a way to come into Nigeria, thereby opening more roads.
How has the Ebola scare affected clearance of cargoes?
We are going about our normal business, it has not affected us in any way, the most important thing is that people should be aware and we are making it possible, 90 percent of Nigerians at Seme Border are now aware of Ebola.
Is it true that Seme Customs does not have examination bays and cargoes are examined on the expressway?
It did not start today, it started a long time ago even before I became the chairman, but we are trying so much to have an examination bay, in fact if you go there now you will see that we are putting sands and trying to construct a place, only that we are looking for little incentive from government, we contributed to make it the way it is now. As I am talking to you now trailers can go in and come out, but we are still expecting more, we want to make the place a hard surface, otherwise we have mapped it out and we have been working on it for over two years now.
Whose responsibility is it to construct holding bays?
It is the responsibility of everybody including Customs and agents, but we have taken it upon ourselves because we are one of the organisations that people are looking at to do something; next year by the grace of God we would have finished it.
How is the relationship with Customs now?
It is very cordial, we are living like a family, whatever is the problem of the customs is also the problem of the agents. Initially, before I came in as chairman, we can say that because of orientation problem, we talk of smuggling, now people are beginning to know the benefit of paying duties, 90 percent of cars coming through Seme border pay their duty and even higher than what is paid at the port.
Recently we heard that Nigeria Customs is collaborating with Benin Republic on vehicle importation, how has this arrangement helped?
That arrangement did not start today, it started when Dikko was the Controller of Seme Customs, these are what we all joined hands to put together because Benin Republic was extorting more money from us, so we are looking at a way of helping ourselves and also to stop the extortions coming through the border. We are happy that today it is implemented, all the cars that are imported into Nigeria come through one channel now whereby the escort from Benin Republic escort the vehicles into Nigeria and when they bring it in, they hand it over to customs, from there it goes to the customs park, from there they all start paying duties, those that have paid duty before coming will be examined, those that have not paid will now have to pay, examine and the vehicles are released. So we see this as a very big kudos to Nigeria customs and the agents who complied.
We heard that Benin Republic Customs tried to sabotage this arrangement by not declaring correctly the vehicles they handled
Whatever is happening there now, we are combating it, the association has done a lot in helping customs, and one thing with Nigeria customs of today is that when they are informed they also want the association to be informed and this makes their work so easy. Unlike before, when they want to do something, associations may not know about it and it becomes just like a stone from the sky. Right now, vehicles that are moving in from Cotonou, some of them when you look at the list, the other time we had a chat with the customs officers especially the DC vehicle seat, we had a chat about the vehicles being brought from Cotonou, some of them that have been declared over there do not come into Nigeria, initially there is this N5,000 that Nigerian vehicles do pay at their various parks before you clear the vehicle into Nigeria, because of this arrangement, the cars do not enter their park any longer. So they insisted that we still pay that N5,000 which we are kicking against, they don't give us any of such services again such as car park, security and so on, so why are they collecting such money from us, we are vehemently opposing this seriously. There was a day we threatened to stop work and every movement until they stop the money, but because the arrangement is still new, we are taking our time. There was a time that our controller called their own controller over there and we had a chat with them, but what we gathered was that some of the big men in Cotonou who have been benefitting from this money do not want the arrangement to work, so they are putting obstacles here and there, but I know that with time we will overcome that.
How have you resolved the crisis in ANLCA Seme chapter?
The crisis is a by-gone issue now, when I sit down and remember what happened and the way it was controlled, I give thanks to God for giving me the knowledge and the will power to contain the situation to bring peace. It is true that ethnicity became an issue, but you know that every member of an association comes from one ethnic group or the other, so they ran to their various tents and they started fighting themselves, what we did was try and talk with them, as I am talking to you now every ethnic group have come back and they are supporting ANLCA in whatever we are doing.
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