I watched with dismay, the show put up by rice traders in Sango Ota, Ogun State, over the alleged seizure of prohibited and contraband goods by the men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the reported response of the Ogun State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Chief Dapo Ashiru, on the feelings on the state government about the issue. The traders protested half-naked.
It is globally known that items on the prohibition list of the government are not to be brought into a country and that anyone that does so has committed a crime against the laws of the land. This is because engaging in such action is nothing but a felonious act against the sovereignty of the country.
It is equally sad that those crying over the alleged seizure have never asked for the Act that brought the NCS into being. It is this aspect of ignorance and lack of love for the country that compelled me to write this piece. In the first instance, the Nigeria Customs Act empowers it to break into any shop, house or store where suspected contrabands are stored or kept, and confiscate such in the name of the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is a fact that the alleged smugglers met Customs checkpoints on the road but, one way or the other, were able to bring the prohibited items into the country, to the detriment of our economic growth.
Let us ask ourselves how much the smugglers paid into the coffers of the Federal Government as duties, levies or taxes on the seized items. How much did the Ogun State government collect as offloading fees from the rice traders at the Sango garage when the items were being discharged there? What went into the purse of the local government council as land fee on each bag of rice, keg of vegetable oil, tomato puree, noodles, coffee and other items allegedly smuggled into the motor park?
I am very confident that nothing was realised by all the three arms of government as revenue. Why then are government officials who are in the position to know pampering the illicit traders? Why are they afraid to point out the truth to them that smugglers are the number one enemies of Nigeria?
For over four years now, local traders under the aegis of Alajapa Development Committee have been crying to the state government over the exploitative, multiple and illegal collections that have continued to dog their trade and which have made life very difficult for them. The Alajapas who never deal in prohibited items have been at the receiving end of government policies that have made local traders to go bankrupt. An average Alajapa collects about 15 tickets or levy receipts per trip per day from Igboora to Sango while the contraband dealers pay zero levies. Members of Alajapa Development Committee in Ogun State deserve better.
We have never gone violent. We demand an immediate response to our challenges.
Abiodun Rauph
Sango Ota, Ogun State.
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