Yemisi Izuora
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos Command said it generated N11.6b in the first quarter of 2018.
The command also said it made several seizures including military camouflage uniforms, bullet proof jackets, military helmets, military Fez caps and military vest of different Camouflage colours from the sheds of the two ground handling companies at the airport.
A statement issued by Mr. Ephraim Haruna, the spokesman of the command said that the figure generated represented 74.34 per cent of the envisage revenue target for the quarter under review.
He explained that in the first month of Mrs. Jayne Shoboiki, the new Customs Area Comptroller (CAC), March, the command generated over 4.12bn despite the public holidays within the month, which prevented its officials from carrying out their duties.
He added that within the first quarter, the command made noteworthy seizure of consignments of Military Hardware imported into the Country, which were intercepted at both Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc shed and the Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCOL) Shed with different airway bill numbers and different Importers and organisations.
Some of the seizures according to him were military camouflage uniforms, bullet proof jackets, military helmets, military fez caps, military vest of different Camouflage colours and air gun imported with two different end user certificates.
Other seizures were 20 pieces of assorted optical sight wrapped in a military camouflage uniform bags, mainly for riffles and grenade launcher, military knee/shin guards, handcuffs, police official cardigans, drones, 108 cartons of expired (2009) Beef imported into the Country, pangolin scales and Tramadol tablets with no of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to be exported out of the Country, among others.
The statement quoted Shoboiki as advising clearing agents to enlighten the importers to desist from bringing into the country items that were not only prohibited, but absolutely prohibited, adding that military hardwares were not to be imported by an individuals.
She said such items must come into the country with an end user certificate, which she said these did not have.
She said: “We have enough fresh beef in this country, I see no reason someone will import not only beef but expired one. The item is under the import prohibition list, schedule three, item two of the Common External Tariff (CET), was abandoned and all effort made to arrest the consignee proved abortive as the address mentioned does not exist.”
She attributed the revenue performances and the remarkable seizures to the officers at the command, stressing that they had keyed into the strategies put in place to block all possible revenue leakages.
Also, in an effort to be in line with the Comptroller-General and the Federal Government policy of ease of doing business, Shoboiki eliminated some of the duplications in the clearing processes.