The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has announced a staggering revenue generation of 1.3 trillion naira in the first quarter of 2024.

During a press briefing on Wednesday, the Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed that this figure represents a substantial increase of 122.35% compared to the same period last year.

Adeniyi noted the NCS’s exceptional performance, citing over 572 seizures with a duty-paid value of N10 billion.

He emphasised the significant milestone achieved by the NCS in exceeding its revenue collection targets, stating that the first quarter’s revenue surpassed the Federal government’s annual target of N5.07 trillion for the NCS in 2024.

“In the first quarter of 2024, the NCS demonstrated remarkable performance in revenue collection,” Adeniyi stated. “Total revenue collected during this period amounted to NGN 1,347,675,608,972.75.”

The Customs boss also revealed that a substantial portion of revenue, amounting to N1.6 billion, was generated through the electronic auction platform launched earlier in the year.

Despite these achievements, Adeniyi acknowledged the challenges posed by fluctuations in the exchange rate regime, which have disrupted the NCS’s activities.

“In the last quarter, a total of 28 rates were directed by the CBN,” Adeniyi explained. “These fluctuations resulted in an average applied exchange rate of NGN 1,314.03 per USD 1 in the clearance of Customs goods during the quarter.”

Adeniyi expressed concern about the impact of these fluctuations on stakeholders, noting that they have affected and disrupted activities.

However, he expressed optimism about the recent relative stability and announced that the NCS, in collaboration with the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, has initiated periodic consultations with the apex bank to mitigate the potential impact of exchange rate fluctuations on import activities.

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Senator Abdulfatai Buhari representing Oyo North Senatorial District on Friday vowed to collaborate with other stakeholders to bring the perpetrators of Iseyin Edil Fitr killings to book.

Buhari made this declaration in a statement he personally signed and made available to newsmen.

Meanwhile, Customs men were said to be pursuing a Sport Utility Vehicle conveying bags of rice when the clash occurred yesterday.

Officers of the NCS, as gathered, started shooting and bullets hit some persons, who were out celebrating the Eid-il-Fitri, and five of them died.

The killings were said to have sparked a protest in the town.

The lawmaker said he received with rude shock the untimely termination of lives of five youths in Iseyin by officers of the Nigeria Custom Services (NCS) who were working in the heart of the city.

“I’ve done my skeletal findings and I confirmed that one of the victims was killed on his motorcycle going to his family compound to celebrate Edil Fitr with his family members  while another one was killed while working on his motorcycle at a vulcanizer’s point.

“These are some of the information we need to work with in order to make sure that those who killed our youths are dragged to face the consequences”, he said.

The statement added, “we also gathered that none of the customs officers sustained injuries let alone killed in the fracas between the officers and Rice Smugglers within Iseyin”

Senator Buhari further assured, “As representative of my people in government,  I’ve started my investigation and shall do that to unravel all the hidden truths about the sad occurrence”.

He condoled with the entire people of Iseyin local government, particularly families of the deceased while he prayed that their souls rest in peace.

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On the intervention of the senator representing Oyo South, Senator Kola Balogun, the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges not only condemned this Gestapo-like raid but gave a two-week ultimatum for the seized bags of rice to be returned. However, events thereafter showed that in an ungoverned space that Nigeria has become, where everybody is muzzling to outdo one another in spates of impunity, the NCS is stiff-neckedly sticking to its curious lawlessness and justifying same. In an interview with a national newspaper at the weekend, NCS’ spokesmen, Joseph Attah and Timi Bomodi, literally told the senate to go bowl a hoop. With a fallacious argument of false dichotomy, the two men validated the raid based on their justification of an earlier raid by the NCS. “Is it today that Customs has been raiding markets? Why is so much noise about the Ibadan raid? When Customs raided markets in Mubi in Adamawa State and another notorious market in Kano, why wasn’t there any outrage?” he said.

Warped as this reasoning, a false dilemma, is Attah further cited Section 147 of the CEMA law which he claimed gave NCS the Gestapo power to raid. That same CEMA has been severally cited as allowing seizure of suspected contraband only within 50 miles radius of the border. NCS has also been asked why its men would take away money from the raided shops as well. Bomodi in fact queried the constitutional powers of the National Assembly to perform its oversight functions as he claimed that only the courts could query obvious illegality.

It is only in a country where there are no laws and where order is on sabbatical that this NCS impunity will go unchecked. The mere fact that the NCS chose nocturnes to carry out its operations first alerts the mind to the darkness behind the action. This same NCS that flexes its muscles at bags of rice in the market is completely and hopelessly inept to curtail the influx of arms that has become a pestilence in Nigeria. It also shut its eyes to the seamless movement of contraband goods and illegal aliens at the Nigerian northern border flanks while Buhari’s discriminatory border closure lasted.

In all these, we must thank Senator Balogun for bringing the plight of his Oyo constituents to the attention of the whole Nigeria, via the senate. The senator must however not rest on his oars until the fascism and gross impunity that the NCS is inflicting on hapless Nigerian traders is brought to a stop.

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The Customs officers, as learnt  were abducted on Wednesday morning along with an unspecified number of unsuspecting travellers on the Jibia – Batsari highway.

One of the residents disclosed that the bandits riding on motorcycles arrived at the customs checkpoint, overpowered the officers and disappeared with them into a nearby forest.

“The bandits in their numbers riding on motorcycles, arrived at the Customs checkpoint, overpowered the officers, seized their weapons and finally fired gunshots sporadically into the air thereby disappearing with them into nearby forest popularly known as ‘Rugu’.”

As at press time, the spokesperson of the state command of the Nigeria Customs Service was yet to confirm the incidence after promising that he will confirm it after hearing from the office.

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The Comptroller of Customs in Adamawa and Taraba States Command, Kamardeen Olumoh, disclosed this when he led Journalists to the scene of the crime at a warehouse in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.

The suspects were found with 900 bags of rice with duty paid value of N14.5 million.

Olumoh added that operatives of the command busted the warehouse in conjunction with others from the Federal Operation Units and Strike Force, as part of efforts towards sustaining the fight against smuggling in the country.

He further revealed that 15 people, including the manager and labourers at the warehouse, were rounded up by the security operatives while carrying out their nefarious act.

The comptroller, thereafter proceeded with the reporters to the Customs Headquarters in Yola where it has seized a truckload of grains intercepted by operatives along the Mubi-Yola Road.

He said investigation revealed that the truck was also carrying foreign rice re-bagged as local rice concealed under bags of beans with a duty paid value of N10.3 million.

Three suspects were also arrested in the process and all the arrested suspects would be prosecuted, Olumoh added.

While the Nigerian Government has since closed its borders with neighbouring countries, the comptroller described the activities of smugglers as sabotage.

He, however, warned smugglers that Adamawa and Taraba States remain no go areas for them as the Command would soon embark on raiding markets in search of smuggled foreign rice.

Olumoh also appealed to market heads to caution their members against the sale of foreign rice as a way of supporting local farmers who have the capacity of feeding the nation.

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Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd), the Comptroller General of Customs announced this while addressing a news conference in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

He said a total of 317 suspected smugglers and 146 illegal migrants were  arrested during the period.

The Customs chief noted that the partial border closure was yielding the desired results as the nation’s consumption of petroleum products has dropped by 10.2 million litres.

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