To be honest, the way Customs officials conducted themselves in invading Sango-Ota motor park at midnight on February 22 to raid over 60 shops and cart away the goods of market women calls for general overhauling and amendment of the Customs and Excise Management Acts 158 and 645 by the National Assembly.
I find it particularly embarrassing to this nation to hear that smugglers easily escape from our borders with many bags of rice and kegs of vegetable oil when Customs officials are on duty. It is in view of this that I enjoin the distinguished senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the leadership of Dr Bukola Saraki to come to the aid of market women by amending the Customs Acts 158 and 645. No Customs personnel should be allowed to invade markets at midnight. It was equally alleged that the Customs officers stole the traders’ money. These officers must be probed.
We expect our Customs officers and men to arrest smugglers and inflict pains of them instead of creating problems for market women. The questions begging for answers are: Were these Customs officers asleep when the smugglers entered Nigeria with bags of rice and kegs of vegetable oil? Did the smugglers pay bribes before being allowed access into the country and, if so, just how much did they pay, and who received the bribe? No matter how one looks at it, the latest incident is a huge shame; it calls the credibility of the Nigeria Customs Service into question and bodes ill for Nigeria. The breach of the fundamental human rights of market women by the Customs must not be allowed to recur.
President Muhammadu Buhari detests cheating. I want to urge his spokesmen, Mr Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, to draw the president’s attention to this incident. The Customs boss, Colonel Mohammed Ali (retd), should be mandated to order his men to release the items carted away by his men. The men who carried out the raid should also be punished.
Some of the market women took bank loans and this incident will make the international community to mock the NCS. I call on the Senate to probe the Customs’ revenue collection in the last six years. Nigerians have no confidence in them. I have never heard of this kind of incident in the USA and UK. I urge the Customs boss to remove the officers deployed to the nation’s borders and replace them with more competent, diligent and honest officers.
Jimoh Mumin
jimohmumin@yahoo.com
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