Comptroller Mahmud Haruna is the Controller in charge of the Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service. Recently, he hosted our correspondent; Roland Ekama at the command’s headquarters in Idiroko, where he responded to questions on some burning issues.
How will you react to the allegation that your the command connives with smugglers to bring in vehicles through the various borders surrounding Idiroko?
Comptroller Mahmud Haruna is the Controller in charge of the Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service. Recently, he hosted our correspondent; Roland Ekama at the command’s headquarters in Idiroko, where he responded to questions on some burning issues.
How will you react to the allegation that your the command connives with smugglers to bring in vehicles through the various borders surrounding Idiroko?
Ogun state command is an enforcement unit, we have various borders here and it is our responsibility to police the various routes. We have tried our best to sensitize smugglers against smuggling fairly used and new vehicles without payment of duty. The importers are free to bring in their vehicles through these routes, but they must pay duty on those vehicles as well. We have also advised people who call themselves importers not to give their vehicles to touts because any vehicle we pick or intercept as the case maybe automatically is labelled seizure; not even detention. There is no excuse of saying that ‘I was not aware, I gave my agent to bring the vehicle or I don't know what happened in the process’ etc. The fact here is that there is no excuse, if such vehicles are intercepted by my men it is gone for good. As we speak, I have more than 1,000 applications in my office but like I said that as far as I am concerned what we have intercepted is outright seizure. On allegations that 300 or 500 vehicles are passing Idiroko every day, then you tend to wonder that in a month we have 9,000 vehicles passing through this axis and the big question is – where are they coming from? Let me state categorically that Idiroko border is not the only route bordering around Benin Republic. So there is no how 300 units of vehicles can pass through Idiroko on a stretch in a day and someone will say officers are conniving with smugglers by allowing these vehicles to pass, well if people want to make it as a blackmail they are free to do that, because we have a lot of seized vehicles here, so with that someone somewhere will just say what he or she likes. On a daily basis we seize vehicles even over the weekend alone we have about 16 seized vehicles and those vehicles are not just the smaller cheap vehicles you find everywhere, they are not the kind of vehicles that carries contraband like rice because such contraband is not supposed to pass through border stations; rather an approved routes and the seaports. Therefore anyone that passes through this route becomes contraband as far as we are concerned, most people are using smaller vehicles now to smuggle rice through unapproved routes because trucks are becoming difficult for them to move the staple food from the border stations to town and the practice is common in Abeokuta where we always seize trailer loads of rice. But here, we seize smaller vehicles with the product. Again, the allegation is just cheap blackmail and I also learnt that it was an agent that was quoted in an interview by saying all these false allegation against our command ; we are not even bothered or to ask that agent whether what he said is true or lie.
Is it that there is no good working relationship with the freight agents in Idiroko?
It now depends on what you mean by good working relationship with them. In my own view, a good working relation with the agents is for them to bring their job, then we assess duty for them properly and that is supposed to be our working relationship with them or the simple mutual relationship we have because it is not me that will go and get vehicles for the agents, then they go and collect duty. If I seize a vehicle today there is no going back and if you apply for me to give to you I won't because most of the owners of such vehicles claimed that they give their money to agents to pay duty and the agent do not pay the supposed duty, therefore who are you going to blame and you tend to wonder who is telling the truth. For agents to go out and say customs is not allowing them to do their job then my response will be that we are to collect revenue and we are also here for anti smuggling activities, we encourage you to do your job, and also to allow you pay duty before you can take your vehicle. With PAAR in place, an agent can bring his document in advance, then it is our duty to work on the document ahead and by the time your vehicle arrives and there is nothing funny in the vehicle, then there will be no problem rather we allow you to go because the process has been simplified and the era of cheap blackmail doesn't come in any more. Today the world is a global village, you can search anywhere to use a camera if you like or even use a video to know if what the false report states is true or false because like I said there are so many routes around and we are also inside the bush making arrest on a daily basis. Something they come to appeal on the seized vehicles that they did not send their agents to cross the vehicle rather to pay duty etc, again we have also sensitize the people for them not to give their vehicles to touts because some of them are not genuine agents, but they claim to be agent.
What is the command doing about the many routes connecting Benin Republic and Ogun state?
Your question gave birth to the reasons why the command was established. Like I said earlier, this command was set up to collect revenue and anti smuggling; that is why we have so many officers here and we have patrol vans all over. So the only thing we know we can do very well here is to patrol those routes; some are even 40 kilometres to the border, while the command itself is less than a kilometre to the border. Therefore we have a lot of checkpoints in most of the routes even as some of these routes are inside the forest, so definitely we have to use patrol vehicles and that is why the case with smugglers here has always been that of cat and mouse issue because everyday we are inside the forest chasing the smugglers and everyday we have casualties here; the casualties we are talking about is on both sides. We cannot relax or rest or even fold our hands and watch them carry out what we know is illegal. On a daily basis, we have series of people wounded, we make some arrest, some people are hit, and also vehicles are seized in the forest on a daily basis. But however, whenever there is an operation, here we have something to show for it.
From the Customs perspective, how has the Guandzou Free Trade Zone benefited the economy?
We were there at the Guandzou Free Zone with some of the pressman and what we did is like we are trying to do more of a public relations job for them because they are producing but they don't have market while some are just coming up on board, they are employing people, but you will agree with me that awareness is very important because if the society is aware and they have a market, definitely it will be a morale booster basically for employment and other positive change for the economy. In fact the free trade zone will champion local content campaign. For example the companies that manufacture tiles have been able to produce hundreds of tons per day which I believe is enough and it happens to be the best in Africa; not only in West Africa, but again awareness is key in this regard because instead of going to China to buy tiles, while not come down here to patronise local content which is much cheaper and also encourage us to make more revenue for government because it is only when they sell that we make revenue but as it is, they are improving and they are also growing. I also urge people to come and invest because it is a free trade zone and Nigerians are free, they should also endeavour to invest in this kind of project rather than taking their money outside for investment.
What have been your challenges since assumption of office last year at the command?
There are lots of challenges here and even the natives of the place are aware of the fact that smuggling is not their birth right is a problem to us. They should not see smuggling as if it is their right because they are closer to the border; it is an illegal act and there are items that they can import, there are also legitimate businesses to do, but I don't know why they derive pleasure in doing illegal activities which they see as their right; thus sensitising these people and making them aware is our major challenge. However the normal logistics problem is also there; we need more patrol vehicles, we need arms and all these have to do with money and when the government has enough money then they will reach out to us.
Are you optimistic that the command will surpass its revenue target set for it by management?
Targets are given and target must be made. Management set aside target because they know it can be achieved, and we get our target from excise duty due to the fact that we don't have much imports here, but what we have are more factories in Ogun State and we are trying to harness that potential in ensuring that the smaller ones around the state develop as well; in order word the companies that produce some sizeable goods are made to pay duty. We will realise our target and we are working towards it and that is why we said the media should assist to create awareness for the free trade zone because most of the companies producing and manufacturing are not known; so we want them to come up and to let the society to know that such a place in this area exists and with that we can meet or surpass the revenue target set for us.
How would you rate customs relationship with the various communities here?
In border communities, customs and the natives are supposed to have a very good rapport and even friends because we need them and they also need us to achieve our goals. We also told the traditional leaders about the danger of smuggling because we have some of their children in customs, just like they have children in other organisations. We will continue to appeal to them to tell their children that illegal activities do not pay and we also expect them to educate their children about the danger and again because of the menace of motorbikes, they have also deviced means whereby they carry rice into individual houses and funny enough they will hide the staple food in their houses for no just course which as a result, we have decided that instead of causing accident on the roads, we will no option than to strike at the end. We will continue to appeal to the community leaders to caution their children, because if there is crisis today, anything can happen. Anyway we have a good working relationship with them. They visit us and we also do same when necessary.
Clearing agents are not comfortable with PAAR, what can you make of it?
In any innovation, there must be challenges in the beginning, but as of now I must tell you that PAAR is succeeding and it is not only succeeding it’s also a success. It is one initiative that can not be compared with and it has also saved Nigerians a lot of money. So PAAR is working and it is our responsibility with that of the media to make sure it works, because it is our innovation. We are Nigerians and we expect us to develop this country because the foreigners will not come here to do that for us. The PAAR is proudly Nigeria and we must make sure that it works.
What is your message to smugglers?
Like the name implies, a smuggler is a condemned person in the court of law and such a person must be jailed. Normally when you call someone a smuggler, automatically that person is not fit to be among the living. Those who import goods illegally into the country should desist from it.
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