The NEMA officers were forced to pay 100,000 CF equivalent of N60,000 for the transit permit despite the waiver granted to them by the Nigerien Ministry of External Affairs as contained in the permit.
The Nigerien Customs has impounded six trucks of relief materials meant for the victims of banditry who fled Sokoto State in Nigeria to Gidan Runji in Maradi State of Niger Republic.
The items were donated by the Nigerian government for persons displaced from various communities ravaged by bandits’ attacks in Sabon Birni and Isa local government areas.
The goods, which left Sokoto around noon on Monday with some staff of the National Emergency Management Agency and those of the Sokoto state’s sister agency, had passed through Illela border post before they were seized by the Nigerien Customs at Konni border town in Tawa State around 6 pm.
The officers insisted on seeing the original copy of the permit before they could allow them passage.
The permit was at the time John Usman, the Nigerian Consular in Niger.
When the consular brought the original copy, the Customs then requested the NIP number and transit clearance which were later granted after the intervention of the chairman of Konni Local Government Area.
The NEMA officers were forced to pay 100,000 CF equivalent of N60,000 for the transit permit despite the waiver granted to them by the Nigerien Ministry of External Affairs as contained in the permit.
According to a Daily Trust report, Kofoworona Soley, the leader of the NEMA team, expressed disappointment with the way they were treated by the Nigerien Customs.
“We are here on humanitarian grounds and our visit is permitted by their government. Why are they subjecting us to this inhuman treatment?” he asked.