Photo: Mr Wale Adeniyi, Customs CG
Fuel smuggling now reduced, we’ll eliminate it soon –Customs CG
The Acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mr Adewale Adeniyi, has said that fuel smuggling across Nigeria’s land borders has been drastically reduced and expressed hope that smuggling of fuel will eventually be “completely eliminated.”
He hinged his optimism on the flurry of measures that the Bola Tinubu is taking to curtail the menace of smuggling after the removal of fuel subsidy in Nigeria.
Adeniyi made this known while addressing journalists after meeting President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said, “it was the assumption generally, that because of fuel is now sold at N500 per liter, it will be a disincentive for smuggling.
“But contrary to that, we have seen that they are smuggling it across the borders. The rate at which this is being smuggled has reduced considerably.
“And it is our hope that by the time we mix some of these other policies that government is working on, it will completely eliminate the problems of smuggling of fuel across borders.”
Earlier, the Customs boss explained that his visit was to enable him express “gratitude to Mr. President for finding me worthy of being appointed the Acting Comptroller General of Customs and also to felicitate with him for his recent appointment as the chairman of ECOWAS.
“For us in the Nigeria Customs Service, ECOWAS represents a very bold attempt to forge regional integration, cooperation in border security and monetary affairs.
“And it is so good to note that my assumption of Office coincided with that period when attention will be focused on Nigeria holding the flag of regional integration.
“I had the opportunity to have very useful discussions and a very constructive engagement with His Excellency, Mr. President. And for all of you that have known him, I’ve worked with him very, very closely. You know that, Mr. President, is a very good listener.
“We had discussions regarding what customs can bring to the table, to actualize the vision of renewed hope for Nigeria, what customers can do in terms of addressing gaps in revenue generation in the customs, our enforcement strategies, and, most importantly, the issue of promoting port efficiency and competitiveness of our ports.
“So these are generally the issues that we discussed. And I believe that in the days ahead, we will be prioritising some of these issues for the benefits of the Nigerian economy.
He said no details have been made on the reported plan to merge revenue earning agencies, stating, “I read that report just like you did. We don’t have any details yet. What I feel is that there is a common base between all those agencies that are generating revenue for the country. And then there are some cross cutting issues.
“There are some areas where we overlap. And there are some areas where we can complement each other. But in terms of bringing the agencies together under one organization, we are yet to get details of that. And we’ll be waiting to get the details and see how that pans out.
Asked if there were specific instructions from Mr President on customs activities and assignment,he replied, “Yes. In terms of specifics, I am sure that we are all very, very familiar with the Presidential Advisory Council. And there is a document which has been made public.
“Our discussions centered around aligning the vision of customs, the activities of customs in the short, medium and long terms with those noble objectives set out in the PAC documents.
“So we’re talking about making our ports user friendly, we’re talking about decongesting the ports, we talked about 48 hours clearance of goods around the ports, export led inward looking economic development strategies. So these are some of the issues that we discussed.
“And I pledged commitment of the customs to bring out reforms and to collaborate with other agencies of government to achieve some of those objectives stated in the PSC documents.”
