Customs Area Controller, CAC, of Seme border Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Comptroller Aliyu Mohammed, has said that the Command has banned all checkpoints along the border route of Seme and Okokomaiko, even as he has directed more patrols.
Mohammed, who disclosed this at Seme, explained that the improved patrols along the route have been yielding the desired result as smuggling activities have reduced.
He stated: “When I first came here I met a very solid foundation made by former Controller Dimka. I have to praise him because of what he left on the ground. I decided to continue from where he stopped, he laid a solid foundation but one of the changes I made was to reshuffle the patrol team.
“I made the patrol team very powerful because I had to balance them instead of allowing officers mount check points, I made it a mobile patrol and with that we have recorded a lot of seizures.”
He however stressed that the Command is having problem with the border community who feel that smuggling is their right.
“Land border crime all over the world have a lot of challenges like smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking and community relations. We have a lot of challenges with the indigenes who feel it is their land and that they can do and undo. Some even say smuggling is their birth right and this is part of the challenges we encounter.”
On the ban on land border import, the Customs boss said the ban and the economic recession is affecting the revenue drive of the Command but stressed that the duty of the Service is to enforce the policies of government.
“The ban is a government policy, the ban on importation through the land border. It affects revenue generation a lot, before if you come here you will see a long queue of trucks, now we don’t see them again probably because of the recession. You know if we have more work, we have a lot of revenue,” he concluded.
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