The Strike Force unit of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in the Lagos axis has seized goods worth more than N174 million in the last seven weeks.
Public Relations Officer of NCS, Joseph Attah, who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, said the major aim of the Strike Force was to block revenue leakages.
“It’s been seven weeks now that the Strike Force was commissioned, only from Lagos axis the team has been able to make some assorted seizures with a Duty Paid Value(DPV) of about N174, 699 million.
“This seizure includes used cars known as Tokunbo. They have intercepted 14 containers of raw woods. You know exportation of unprocessed woods is prohibited.
“They also made similar intervention of containers in Tin-Can and Apapa Port. They have been able to intercept items in various commands,” Attah stated, adding that the Strike Force monitors Customs system with a view to tracking the process of clearance whenever it noticed infraction in any command.
Attah said the Strike Force would then send alert to the command with the view of drawing the attention of the command to block revenue leakages.
He added that the Strike Force had also made interventions in Onne, KLT, Tin-Can, Apapa and Kano.
According to him, the duty received on intervention by the Strike Force is put at N156 million.
He maintained that the operation of the Strike Force was generally different from that of the Compliance Team that was earlier dissolved by the Service.
Attah said with the Strike Force, one does not get to hear complaints about unnecessary blockage at the highways or wrong interception of properly cleared containers, stressing that the Strike Force activities were heavily driven by intelligence and deployment of ICT.
According to him, the Head of the Force, Deputy Comptroller, Abubakar Usman, has warned importers, agents and Customs operatives that business must be done strictly in line with external laws.
Attah said to ensure that the Strike Force succeeds, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali, had continued to provide all necessary logistics in term of fire power and ICT platform that should be available to them.
He said these logistics would enable them view what goes on in the clearance processor.
Attah said the operations of the Strike Force in the last seven weeks had brought in positive impact on clearance of goods.
Meanwhile, the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali has approved the promotion of 775 junior officers to various ranks.
The promotion was announced via a statement issued by the Service Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah in Abuja on Thursday.
Attah said the promotion was strictly based on merit, as the cumulative marks of annual performance evaluation scores, written examination and availability of vacancy determined those who emerged as the most eligible for promotion.
He said the promotion took effect from January 1st, 2017 as effective date.
A breakdown of the promotion showed that seven Assistant Inspectors of Customs were promoted to the rank of Inspector of Customs, 473 Customs Assistant 1 to Assistant Inspector of Customs while three Customs Assistant 111 were promoted to Customs Assistant 11.
In the Support Staff Cadre, 15 Assistant Inspectors of Customs were promoted to the rank of Inspector of Customs, 40 Customs Assistant 1 to Assistant Inspector of Customs, 152 Customs Assistant 11 to Customs Assistant 1 while 85 Customs Assistant 111 were promoted to Customs Assistant 11.
Attah said the CGC congratulated all affected personnel and expressed the hope that their elevations will serve as motivation to effectively deliver on the Service.