Customs Partners EFCC on 100% Cargo Examination

The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has teamed up with the country’s anti graft agency; Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to jointly carry out full cargo inspection at the ports and border stations.
Shipping Position weekly first got wind of the presence of the men of the EFCC in the port last week even before the Comptroller General of Customs; Alhaji Dikko Abdulahi  Inde confirmed the development later in the week..
While addressing customs officers last week at a forum on the need to embrace modern day ICT technologies at the Area 1 command in Apapa Lagos, Dikko who was represented by Deputy Comptroller EI&I John Atte said that the collaboration is necessary so as to bring the service up to date in tackling the scourge of smuggling and false declaration.
Dikko also said that it is as a result of high level of insincerity of Nigerian importers that gave rise to the setting up of the task force. “These are things that we thought will not come back, but when you see the insincerity of our importers and the kind of people that use our borders you can not but try once in a while to tackle them rudely before going back to the modern day technologies, so that is why you see that some of these task forces come up” he explained.
He however assured that the examination team is going to be in the interim, adding that, “we want to test it for now and see that those people who are daring us will not because of automation drive us elsewhere, it is not extra ordinary, it is part of operations to assist in the programme that we have been running”.
Continuing he also said that “it is nothing strange because this used to be the Customs that some of us joined, but we want to also advance and avoid personal torch with importers but like the saying goes that a serious problem needs a serious solution, you can not because of automation watch till you lose your job, so you must be seen to be serious or else other people will come and say they want to do better”.
He however commended the ASYCUDA system of the service which according to him was adopted in 1996, he says that that the Nigeria Customs has so far done well and has recorded tremendous achievements in this regard.
After commending the officers, he harped on the need for them to acquire knowledge of modern ICT in order to be on the same level with the rest of the world. “As a service, we are saddled with the responsibility of collecting revenue, of trade facilitation, generating statistics as well as anti-smuggling, and as the world population increases and technologies continue to advance, some of the responsibilities that were assigned in the service 100 years back can not be the same again, so day by day we are having challenges and as we face these challenges we also find solutions to them.