A maritime industry group; the Save Nigerian Freight Forwarders Importers and Exporters Coalition (SNFFIEC) has called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to revisit auctioning of seized cargoes under the immediate past Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service; Alhaji Dikko Inde Abdullahi.
The group also urged the new Comptroller General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd) to ensure that henceforth, auction of consignment is made known to the public; even as it alleged that there are lots of abuses in auction of cargoes during Dikko's administration.
Coordinator of the group; Sir Osita Chukwu Patrick made the call in a chat with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos on Wednesday .
He noted that it is difficult to identify the auctioneers in Nigeria, adding that the procedure for auction is never made public.
He stated that the former CG of Customs should be called for questioning, “he should come and tell Nigerians how he carried out auctioning of cargoes”.
He alleged further that under Dikko, a container can be sold to three buyers, saying that some of such of cases are still in court.
He also alleged that auction under the Dikko-led administration was done in manner seen to be more of a private business than government affairs , pointing out that "they do auctions like buying and selling"
"They sell auctions as if money was not even paid and you can image a situation whereby a container worth N50 million will be sold for N300,000 as the customs does not know the content of the cargo”, he alleged.
He also advised the incumbent Customs boss Colonel Hameed Ali to publish names of auctioneers or outsource auctioning of cargoes through the establishment of a commission to oversee the process.
According to him, auction is to generate more money for the government and not to enrich some individuals.
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