Mohammed Shosanya
The Nigeria Customs Service,NCS,Port Harcourt Area 11 Command,Onne earned over N136, 213,838, 643. 56 billion between January and July 20th,this year.
It also intercepted 32 contraband goods worth over N1billion within the period in view as part of its renewed war against the illicit act.
The command conveyed the inflows in a press statement issued and signed by its Public Relations Officer Superintendent Benjamin Lomba in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.
The statement quoted that the command’s helmsman,Comptroller Imam Baba’s dynamic and results- oriented leadership style has ensured the blockage of all possible revenue leakages and smuggling activities which resulted in “the seizures of a total number of containers – Thirty two (32) with Duty Paid Value of ₦1,152,747,338.88.
The seizure consists of pharmaceutical/medicament and fireworks with Duty Paid Value of N139.8million; vegetable oil with Duty Paid Value of N833.1 million,plastic with Duty Paid Value of 6.6 Million naira; textiles with Duty Paid Value of N3.6million.
According to the statement,the command made a seizure of drugs in one of the bonded terminals in the month of June,adding that the drugs were handed over to NDLEA in order to fulfill our obligation as contained in the memorandum of understanding between the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA.
On the Transire/Bonded Terminal,Compt Imam Baba, noted that “It is important to inform the public that one of the core functions of Customs is trade facilitation which entails a streamlined and simplified technical and legal procedure for items entering or leaving Nigeria.”
He added that, these procedures are guides in which all Customs officers must adhere to saying “in recent times the Area 11 Command Onne has observed that stakeholders are misinformed about some of these procedures, especially the procedure for transferring containers to bonded terminals.”
He insisted that it was necessary to educate the public that the final destination of any consignment rests in the choice of the owner even as he stated that “It is necessary to educate the public that the final destination for any consignment into the Country is at the owner’s choice. Hence, the procedure to follow in achieving these cannot be altered by any customs officer including an Area Controller.”
He said: “Firstly the importer has to stipulate the bonded terminal or port that will be the final destination right at the country of exportation. The Final destination is always indicated in the bill of lading which is transmitted via the shipping companies to the sea port where the vessel will berth.”
“The Onne Command on receiving the transmission by procedure is expected to check two things on the bill of lading. Which are the Nature code and the Transit clause to ensure that the consignments are destined for a bonded terminal outside the command.”
“This negates the erroneous belief that consignments land in Onne port and thereafter the importer decides to move them to a bonded terminal..Once again Customs officers cannot determine the final destination of any consignment into the Country.”
“Secondly part of the procedure stipulates that this items moving to bonded terminals should have a bond which is one of the requirements the Onne Command ensure is fulfilled before the third procedure of escort from Onne Port to the bonded terminal.”
He maintained that the moment all these requirements were met no Officer not even the area controller can stop these consignments from leaving the port even as he added that , by procedure this consignment cannot be examined in the Command before their departure no matter their content.
He explained that the best the command could do was to relay any intelligence about the consignment to the Customs formation where it was destined to arrive.
Compt Imam emphasized that it is only the customs officers at the final destination that were allowed by procedure to examine the consignment .
He said that for consignments destined for a bonded terminal under the Command jurisdiction by procedure they are subjected to Payment of duty via the designated banks before proceeding to the bonded terminal.
The Customs Area Comptroller made clarified that “The public and our stakeholders should note that these procedures are strictly observed by the Onne Customs Command hence should have a rethink before assuming fictitious imaginations about operations in Onne.”
