‘Our Operations are Based on Intelligence’
Co-ordinator of the Comptroller General’s Compliance Team, Mr. Musa Ibrahim Jalo has said his team is not a parallel squad to the area commands across the country.
Jalo, an Assistant Comptroller (AC) explained that the new creation which looks ad-hoc is to complement the efforts of the Customs Area Controllers (CACs) in the states.
“We are working in concert with the commands to nip smuggling in the bud”, he said.
He said to give credence to this unity of purpose, the team has recovered more than half a billion naira as revenue through the issuance of debit notes (DN) to importers who were not able to pay appropriate duties or who had the knack to evade such duties.
“For instance, Comptroller Haruna is in charge of Federal Operations Unit (FOU). I am under him. We work hand-in-hand and we compliment their efforts”, he said. He stated that the team mandate is to suppress smuggling through the land borders, seaports and airports.
According to him, though we do not have our men at the airports, but on information they can strike at any moment. The success of this assignment is based on information and for you to get quality intelligence you have to invest in it.
The Co-ordinator assured that all the logistics to make for a smooth operation has been provided by the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) and the management of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
On the ways and manners of its approach to sourcing of revenue, he said when a containerized cargo is arrested and it is discovered that appropriate duty was not paid, his team was empowered to issue an order for an upgrade in the revenue through the instrument of a DN which is thereafter forwarded to the FOU or any command for payment.
Since the inauguration of the team in July last year, several goods have been intercepted and valued at millions of naira, they include thousands of bags of rice, vehicles including bullet proof cars, poultry products, vegetable oil, hides and skin as well as imported furniture.
According to the co-ordinator, most of the seizures made were based on co-ordinated information. We trail the people right from the source. For instance, the importers or smugglers of these cars are trailed from the Republic of Benin up to a safer area where we can arrest. Like you know, we are not to arrest anything that is not on Nigeria’s soil. So we devote time to trail the smugglers. It is not an easy job but we are attacking the challenges head on.