Better Performance at Seme Customs Command

Fri, Apr 25, 2014

By publisher

3 MIN READ

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The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service says its first quarter performance this year is better than that of the same period last year

|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  May 5, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT

THE Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Seme Area Command, says its first quarter performance this year is better than that of last year. According to a statement released on April 19, the command said it generated N2.1 billion as revenue for the first quarter of 2014. Ernest Olottah, public relations officer of the command, said the amount has surpassed the N1.89 billion, which was generated within the same period in 2013.

He said within the same period, the command also made 252 seizures with duty paid value of N140,575,660.00 and handed over the seizures of narcotics and artifacts to the relevant government agencies. According to Olottah, a breakdown of the revenue shows that much of it was collected from duty payment on imported motor vehicles, an indication of the resolve of the command’s helmsman to fight smuggling and facilitate legitimate trade while also collecting all revenue due to the government.

Willy Egbudin, Customs Area Controller of the command, had last year emphasised  the need to ensure that no area of revenue leakage was tolerated in the command and sternly warned  against any attempt to undermine his resolve through under-declaration, concealment and outright smuggling to evade duty payment.

Among the seizures were motor vehicles, rice, frozen poultry products, vegetable oil, bales of secondhand clothing, narcotics, cartons of soap. The seized narcotics were handed over to operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, for investigation and possible prosecution of the suspects.  Within the same period, the command also handed over seized artifacts worth $16,870 to the National Council for Museums and Monuments, NCMM.

In the month of March 2014, the command did not only try to meet its monthly revenue target but reinvigorated all patrols to ensure that the full work force of the command was on ground to provide round-the-clock security that would prevent importation of prohibited and unwholesome substances.

As usual, he ordered the full presence of the command’s officers during the Easter celebrations and holidays as he did last Christmas and New Year periods. This was to forestall attempts by smugglers to perpetuate illegalities during the period.

Egbudin had also increased the rapport between the customs and border communities in Seme, Owode, Badagry as well as increased the existing inter service relationship between the service  and other government agencies in Nigeria on one side and Beninoise counterpart on the other hand.