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By Benprince Ezeh
THE members of the Automobile Dealer’s Friends Association have raised alarm over the indiscriminate closure of their shops in Lagos by the officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS.
Morgan Ogbede, the President of the Automobile Dealer Association, told journalists on Thursday, October 31, that their shops had been closed for over a month and that the members were therefore demanding N10 billion as compensation for embarrassment, suffering and loss of business suffered by them.
“As businessmen in Nigeria, we have suffered, embarrassed and extorted for several years in the hands of NCS officials and this time around, we are coming together as a group to put an end to it.
“We want the public to hear us as we are pleading with the government to call the attention of the Comptroller General of the NCS to unseal our shops as we have no other businesses and we also have families to feed,” Ogbede said.
According to him, their members have lost their customers in Lagos and nationwide and that they are angry because many of their customers are now not happy with them because “we have been unable to deliver the cars they paid for because of the closure”.
He refuted the claims by the NCS that the cars were smuggled into the country.
“We deny these allegations because almost all our members import cars through the ports and no car or truck will pass through the ports without custom clearing procedure being compiled with and that the cars were not flown in by air, but through the port,” he said.
In his speech at the press conference, Adebayo Shalom, a member of the association said that “their members are genuine car dealers and not smugglers”.
“We clear our vehicles from the ports through the customs and now they are saying it is a case of underpayment.
“If they claim it was short paid, they should ask the clearing agents they engaged to do the Job. What really happens is that we cannot be paying over a million naira to clear a vehicle and later told it was N600,000, that’s extortion and unlawful.
“Lastly, we urge the NCS to create a portal for payment so that when we clear our vehicles with particular amount, it would have proof of payment or even make it simple by directing the dealers the website to make payments to,” he said.
Speaking on the matter, Monday Ubani, the lawyer to the association, said that the dealers were pleading with the government to unseal their shops and do proper checks to find out if any vehicles were brought into the country illegally.
“It’s unjust to invade the business premises and seal them up for a month. “The NCS officers that invaded and sealed up these car shops did not even ask the owners to produce their vehicle clearance documents for inspection, but rather in a draconian manner sealed up the entire business premises with reckless abandon.
“The dealers informed us that they paid Customs Duties in respect of the vehicles in their car shops as stipulated by the NCS. Also, before taking delivery of their vehicles, they went through the process of clearing the vehicles from the ports, and that the cars were duly cleared by the NCS.
“It has also come to our knowledge that even after clearing these vehicles, the same Customs officers would intercept them on the road and extort more money from them. This is indeed very surprising that the same NCS that cleared these vehicles would turn around to start invading the business premises of the dealers one after the other hunting for the same vehicles they cleared at the ports for improper clearance,” Ubani said
According to Ubani, the Nigerian Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA, gives them the power to examine, mark, seal and take account of any goods upon reasonable suspicion, however, in this case, they did not examine, mark, seal and take account of the particular vehicles identified or suspected as not being properly cleared, but rather sealed up the entire premises without any form of examination or inspection of papers.
“This very act of the NCS has no protection under the CEMA, but smacks of impunity, illegality and flagrant abuse of power,” he added.
-Oct 31, 2019 @18:46 GMT |
Tags: Automobile dealers in Lagos raise alarm over closure of their shops by officers of NCS
