The Controller of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone 'A' of the Nigeria Customs Service in Ikeja Lagos, Compt. Sanni Madugu has promised that the unit will continue to assist commands under its zone to meet their revenue targets.
The Custom Commands under the FOU Zone 'A' includes; Apapa Command, MMIA, Ogun, Osun/Oyo, Ondo/Ekiti, Tin Can Island, Lillypond, Seme, KLT, PTML, Lagos Industrial Command and Western Marine Command.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lagos on Tuesday, Madugu said that the unit equally has an oversight function of providing operational back up to other customs command in the zone in times of distress and to provide security for cargoes being transferred to bonded terminals.
He said that the Murtala Muhammed Airport Command has been able to surpass its revenue target every month due to the intervention of the FOU in suppressing activities of miscreants and bringing calmness to the environment.
Recall that in November 2014, the MMIA command had a clash with freight forwarders over alleged man-handling of a senior officer.
Two people were injured in the fracas as gunshots were reportedly fired, and the then area Controller, Tajudeen Olanrewaju was reportedly pelted.
Madugu however said that the airport command is now enjoying the dividends of the FOU intervention, hence the boost in its revenue.
"FOU Zone ‘A’ will continue to partner with the area controllers in the zone and we will assist them and make sure they attain the revenue target given to them"
"The FOU Zone ‘A’ has brought sanity to the MM Airport of which we are now enjoying the dividend of that, this has made MM to surpass its target almost every month, they are ahead of their target because they have sanity restored in that place"
"One of our functions here is to give them support whenever they are in distress and when they need our assistance"
The FOU boss also told journalists that one other way the unit assist commands revenue is that, it is responsible for the transfer of goods from one port to another and from one port to another country.
"We are giving protection to these cargoes on transit, by so doing we are protecting the duties of government, otherwise if we just release the containers like that something might happen on the way, who now pays? So we are assisting the area commands in their duty"
He equally said that the unit have been collecting duty on behalf of the area commands and that it usually generate its own revenue.
"We have intervention here on ASYCUDA, when we stop containers anywhere and we discover you have under-paid, we normally generate revenue difference, we give you the assessment for you to go and pay" he said.
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