THE Senate, on Thursday, gave the go-ahead to its Customs and Excise committee, headed by Senator Hope Uzodinma, to kickstart a probe into the loss of N30 trillion revenue by the Nigerian Customs Service and some maritime agencies.
Senator Uzodinma, who moved the motion at the Senate plenary, said he was seeking the permission of the upper chamber to allow the committee on maritime to also join the probe.
He said his committee had conducted some investigations which, so far, had revealed that Nigeria was bleeding through activities of the Customs and the maritime agencies.
“We have started this assignment and, honestly speaking, we have identified that between 2006 and 2017, over N30 trillion worth of foreign exchange in form of approved ‘Form M’ made for imports and for which there is no evidence that the goods came into this country.
“Rather, what the commercial banks do is to apply for foreign exchange and the Central Bank of Nigeria approves it. The money is transfered to foreign banks but there are no documents that the goods come in. There has been round tripping with the limited foreign exchange that we have in Nigeria.
“The recent one, which is mind-blowing, was that shipping companies now load cargoes worth billions of naira, come into the country, go to warehouse terminals and offload, but Nigerian government will not collect one kobo. All they do is informal negotiations with the terminal operators and regulators and they will offload.
“This is an international crime. We have identified over 228 vessels with their destination numbers and terminals where they offloaded. We have gone through Customs’ ASCUDA database, tracking every shipment and every vessel that came and offloaded,” he said.
The lawmaker added that there was also an act by all the Asian companies to move their goods to Cotonou, in Benin Republic, adding that these goods were meant for Nigerian market.
“By midnight, the vessels will change their documents as if the shipment is from Ivory Coast or even Cotonou, and they will move in. We are losing trillions of naira annually as a result of these infractions. There is incorrect classification, undervaluation, under-declaration and incorrect origin,” he said.
Uzodinma said his motion was to bring the activities to the notice of the Senate and requested that the committee on marine transport should join the investigation.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the sitting, ruled that the committee on marine transport should join the N30 trillion probe, to ensure holistic investigation into the matter.
“This is one area that the law enforcement agencies should move in quickly and ensure that these monies are recovered. We cannot be going to China and all around the world trying to borrow money when we can recover easily, monies lost through corrupt practices. This is where the Senate must be praised for actually blowing the whistle. This is the real whistle,” he said.
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