His announcement was made in Kano, during an inspection visit to warehouses belonging to Chinese business operators responsible for housing illegal textile contraband. SaharaReporters revealed in a report that the contraband discovered in these warehouses ran into billions of naira in value.
The Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Dikko Inde, announced that the NCS will establish a Customs, Trades, Manufacturers Consultative Forum. This announcement was made because of the volume of bitter complaints to the NCS coming from traders and manufacturers.
His announcement was made in Kano, during an inspection visit to warehouses belonging to Chinese business operators responsible for housing illegal textile contraband. SaharaReporters revealed in a report that the contraband discovered in these warehouses ran into billions of naira in value.
"We thought that it is absolutely necessary to establish a Customs, Traders, Manufacturers Consultative Forum in order to create a platform for addressing complaints coming from our traders and manufactures against our operations across the country, " Inde highlighted.
He further acknowledged that most of the complaints against them were informed as the result of lack of proper understanding of their lawful actions according to stipulated rules and regulations governing their assigned responsibilities.
He charged that, "We cannot succumb to what some people may say, so long as we are operating within the confine of stipulated laws of the land."
The Forum, he explained, would pave way for a harmonious working relationship between them and traders in the State, as well as manufacturers, “and in the country in general, " he maintained.
The seized contraband materials according to him were dumped in 75 warehouses in the State. "The estimated value for only one warehouse according to our estimation is N4.2b. So you can imagine the value of all the seized warehouses, " he stated.
The Customs boss revealed that the seized textile materials would be treated as falling under two different categories. "Those that are not contraband we will ask their owners to come forth and pay for their duties. After which they will be allowed to take their goods. The ones that are contraband we will take them to the federal government, for them to decide what to do with them," he disclosed.
It was at this point when the Customs boss referred back to the regime of Olusegun Obasanjo, "when 400 trailers of contraband materials were burnt in Lagos State and 100 trailers were burnt in Kano state," he referred.
Inde warned his men in Kano that whenever there was similar flood of contraband materials into the State, he would hold them responsible. Urging them to be extra vigilant in the discharge of their duties.