Customs to Enforce ECOWAS Protocol along Lagos-Abdijan Corridor

The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has taken proactive measures to eliminate all barriers that constitute impediments to effective trade viz-a-viz the ECOWAS protocol along the Lagos-Abdijan corridor.

The new Customs Area Controller, Mohammed Aliyu, who stated this on assumption of office, promised to consolidate on the achievements of his predecessor.

This is as he matched words with action by further collapsing some operational structures along the busy land border.

The controller said he occasionally monitors the modus operandi of officers under his jurisdiction by way of uninformed visit.

He enjoined the field officers to ensure that total compliance to the service extant laws is the hallmark while engaging in anti-smuggling operations.

Aliyu added that in order to ensure the standardisation of trade facilitation and protect the territorial integrity of the country, all incoming transport vehicles with particular emphasis to luxury buses must be subjected to scanning procedure as it is done with trucks and containers.

Commenting on the trapped vehicles that could not meet the dateline of the policy pronouncement of the federal government, he charged the committee to ensure proper documents verification and authentication of duty payment of each vehicle trapped in the customs vehicle seat before release.

He warned that smugglers must not take advantage of the exercise as the numbers of the trapped vehicles in customs custody are known to the Command.