Headlines
Farinto tackles Customs over attempt to demonise victim of Mile- 2 shooting —-claims trigger- happy officer under influence of drug
Eyewitness reporter
The fiery Vice-President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents(ANLCA), Kayode Farinto, has condemned what he described as a vain attempt by the Nigeria Customs Service to demonise one Adeyemi Quadri, the young freight forwarder, who was shot in the leg by a member of the roving team of the Federal Operation Unit(FOU) on Mile 2 road.
Farinto, who is also the Managing Director of Wealthy Honey Investment Nigeria Limited, claimed that the Customs resorted to this unorthodox method in a bid to hush up the unfortunate incident that could have claimed the life of the Customs broker.
Speaking in his office yesterday, Farinto said it behooves him as a senior stakeholder in the industry and in his personal capacity as a licensed customs broker to speak up and expose the antics of Customs in its attempt to sweep the incident under the carpet after all his efforts to settle the matter amicably has been rebuffed by the Customs.
It could be recalled that on March 17th, 2021, there was a shooting incident at the Mile -2 axis of Tin Can port where an officer in the Roving team of the FOU shot and fatally wounded a Customs broker over a dispute on 2019 RAV4 Toyota SUV.
The incident generated a spat between the Customs authority, who claimed that the victim was trying to resist and obstruct the officer in his duty of arresting the vehicle which the Customs claimed fell foul of standard clearing procedure.
After the tensed atmosphere generated between the Customs and the confraternity of freight forwarders, the Customs authority, through its National Public Relations Officer, Deputy Comptroller Attah, in an interview with an online medium, declared that the victim of the incident was not a registered Customs broker but a tout who mobilised a mob in an attempt to overrun the officer to dispossess him of his gun, hinting at possible prosecution of the victim.
However, Farinto declared that nothing could be further from the truth the allegation raised by the National spokesman of the Customs which he said should not be allowed to stand if justice will be done in the case.
He challenged the Customs PRO to provide proof of his claims that the shot victim was not a Customs broker but a tout.
“Am speaking as the Managing Director of Wealthy Honey Investment Nig. Limited and a senior stakeholder in the industry and a licensed customs broker.
‘I read the statement made by DC Attah, the National PRO of Customs on the unfortunate incident at Mile Two where one of our members was shot and i can say that he goofed.
”He goofed in the sense that his statement was misleading Nigerians to believe that what happened at mile two was as a result of miscreants who attempted to take the gun of the officer.
“I challenge him to provide the proof of his allegations.
As a stakeholder and genuine agent, the onus is on me to let the world know the true position of the incident.
”What happened was that a customs agent, having followed the due process of clearance procedure, applied for valuation on 2019 RAV4 Toyota model and the vehicle was valued at over $12,000 with the surface duty of N1.7 million and other charges which amounted to N2.345million, which he duly paid.
‘After this, the vehicle was duly released and he took delivery of it and drove it out of the port.
‘At a point along the Mile two road, he was accosted in a commando style by one of the members of the roving team of FOU.
‘One of the team members, whom we suspected was not in a stable mind, shot the agent.
“This will take me to the issue of who is a customs broker.
Section 150 of CEMA empowers the Customs board to register us as clearing firms, but we can delegate functions and duties to our staff.
“This was what happened to the agent who was shot .He was working with a licensed Customs brokage firm and that made his a genuine customs broker unlike what Attah wanted the world to know.
‘But instead of Customs to come openly and apologise that what happened was a mistake, what they now did was to label him as miscreant and tout who is not a freight forwarder.
”This was an attempt to call a dog a bad name before they hang him but I disagree and challenge Attah to prove it” Farinto fumed with flaming fury.
‘Under CEMA, there is what is called precarious liability which means that whatever any of the staff does, the owner of the license under whose the staff operates will be held liable.
”This particular staff paid all the duty accrued to the government.
”We shall not accept the attempt by the Customs to label the agent as a miscreant”, he declared.
Farinto, who was brandishing a sheaf of document for the payment of necessary duties by the wounded agent, declared that the clearance of the vehicle followed due process as all the duties and charges as assessed by competent Customs officer, were fully paid and the vehicle legally exited.
According to the sheaf of document that was made available to our reporter, the Vehicle, a RAV4 Toyota 2019 model was valued at $12,748 with surface duty of N1,700 ,080.00 using an exchange rate of N381 to a dollar and 35 per cent rate of duty and HS Code 8703.
The valuation officer, according to the Nigeria Customs Service Valuation Assessment Form, who duly examined, assessed and duly released the vehicle, was one Nwankwo, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs with service Number 4115, signed and dated the form March 15th, 2021.
In the Assessment notice by the Customs, the surface duty and other charges assessed and duly paid was N2,345,929.00
The break down of the assessment and payment include N1,700,080.00 as surface duty, N119,006.00 as surcharge, N24,287.00 as ETLS and N502,556.00 as VAT.
The total amount assessed and paid was N2,345,929.00
The declarant with C no 4814RC143708, was Rightful Soil Nigeria Limited while the Company name is Cajetan Egbufoama 24490638-0001.
The declarant paid the full duty in cash with receipt number R-44559 and dated 16/03/2021 at GTB.
The assessment Notice carries C44053 dated 16/03/2021 as Customs reference while declarant reference was 2021/ESHE with assessment reference A 44908 16/03/2021
Farinto, said having paid all the necessary duty and charges, the FOU roving team had no justification to accost the agent and even shot him.
He accused the Customs of hiding under the absence of uniform tariffs on vehicles which he alleged they used to harass and extort agents.
He claimed that all attempts by the ANLCA to prevail on the Customs to take a cue from their counterparts in Ghana who use uniform tariffs on vehicles proved abortive.
He accused the officers of frustrating the process of harmonised tariff on vehicles for their selfish interests.
”I have on several occasions begged the Customs authority to give us uniform tariff on vehicles
”Nigerians need to know that for instance, a tariff on 2019 Camry differs at Tin Can, Apapa and PTML. They pay different values because of the arbitrariness of duty.
”We have received many complaints from our members over the extortion and arbitrariness of tariff on vehicles and asked the Customs to take a cue from Ghana where we even offered to sponsor officers of the service to go and understudy their system.
”In Ghana, your VIN number is imputed into the system which will give all the details on the vehicles such as year of manufacture, mileage on the odometer. With that, your vehicle will be valued. You cant lie.
”But here in Nigeria, they prefer arbitrary imposition of tariff.
”I have it on good authority that the CGC has directed that there must be uniformity of value but this has not been implemented.
”We are tired of arbitrary value, we are tired of giving bribes.”, the ANLCA Chieftain declared.
He said that it was inhuman and callous by Customs to label the young agent who was shot as a miscreant.
”The officers act with impunity and feel they can get away with anything they do.
”But not this time around because we are going to fight and get justice for the innocent and unarmed agent who was brutalised and shot by an officer we strongly suspected was not in a stable mind.
” The officer who pulled the trigger was psychologically unstable”
”From our own investigations, we found out that this particular officer has been living on psychotropic substance.
”You recalled one junior officer sometime ago who declared himself as the CGC. This incident has been hushed up.
”I challenge the Customs to bring out the officer who shot our colleague and subject him to psychiatric analysis and clinical examination.
‘Nigerians will be surprised at the level of psychotropic substance in his system.
”When the agent was shot, this particular officer was even threatening to give him water so he could die.
”There is no sensible officer with weapon who will say that. We are not at war.
Am challenging the customs to parade this officer and subject him to necessary examination to determine his state of mind.
‘This brings me to the disturbing issue of the state of mind of these Customs officers with guns”Farinto declared.
He appealed to the general public, especially the civil society groups, to rise up and help the wounded Customs broker get justice.
However, investigation by our reporter revealed that, while the Lagos FOU authority gave the wounded agent N200,000 in two tranches(N100, 000 by the Comptroller of Lagos FOU and another N100,000 by the leader of the Roving team) to off-set his hospital bill, the disputed Vehicle is still in the Lagos FOU detention, almost a month after the incident.
It was gathered that the Unit has slammed a DN of N3.5million on the vehicle as they alleged that the duty paid by the importer was a “compromised duty”
Farinto however disagreed with the position of the FOU which he described as an attempt to safe their face as there was no such thing as a compromised duty in CEMA.
He queried the competence of the FOU officers on assessment and valuation even as he declared that the unit was set up not to collect revenue but to act as the police of the Customs.
”The best the FOU officers, who are not trained in assessment and valuation, could do under such circumstance, was to return back to the releasing ports any consignment suspected of infraction in payment of duty”
He said that it was left for the importer if he would pay the DN which he described as arbitrary, illegal and inhuman but hinted that the matter could be taken to court which is the final arbiter in a dispute of this nature.
He accused the FOU customs of an attempt to whisk away the wounded agent while he was still recuperating at the hospital to an unknown place but ” i frustrated their move when i quickly moved the injured freight forwarder away before the Customs could carry out their plan”
Customs
Customs grants one- month extended window to illegally imported private aircraft owners to regularise their documents to avoid sanction
Headlines
How Soccer match in Libya turned into shocker for Super Eagles
1) The chartered ValueJet aircraft departed from the Victor Attah International Airport, Uyo at 11.55hours on Sunday, 13th October 2024, and landed at the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano at 13.10hours, for the completion of immigration formalities and for the aircraft to refuel.2) The aircraft took off from Kano at 15.18hours, for the 3 hours and 35 minutes flight to Benghazi, Libya, expecting to arrive a few minutes before 8pm Libya time.
3) Just as he was about to commence his initial approach into Benghazi, the captain (pilot) was instructed by the control tower that he could not land in Benghazi (despite having all the required landing papers and having completed all formalities before leaving Uyo and later, Kano, but should proceed to the Al-Abraq International Airport, even though the airport lacked the control navigators for landing at such hours. He complained that he was short on fuel but his words fell on deaf ears as he was told in stern manner that the directive was from ‘higher authorities.’
4) On landing at the Al-Abraq International Airport, in the small town of Labraq, at 19.50hours, it was clear that the airport was not a well-utilized facility. There were no scanning machines or the usual equipment for this service, and officials had to make do with mobile phones to scan passport data pages.
5) The delegation, which included 22 players and team officials; NFF President Alh. Ibrahim Musa Gusau; Deputy Governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu; a couple of NFF Board members; NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi; a couple of parliamentarians; a couple of NFF Management; a couple of media representatives and; a couple of stakeholders, was shown scant respect by the airport authorities who applied curt manners and stern tones.
6) It took over one hour for the team’s luggage to roll through the carousel, despite the fact that the bags and other items had already been hauled from the aircraft immediately on arrival.
7) No official of the Libyan Football Federation was at the airport to receive the delegation, as is the best practice globally. Airport officials could not answer the simple question on where the buses that would take the delegation members back to Benghazi (where the NFF had booked hotel rooms) were.
8) When delegation members including the NFF President, Comrade Shaibu and Dr Sanusi attempted to venture outside the airport to ascertain if there were vehicles waiting for the team, they were stopped in the most uncouth of manners by airport security personnel.
9) Calls to the General Secretary of LFF, Mr. Abdul-Nasser by Dr. Sanusi yielded no fruits as the former kept promising that the buses would arrive in ‘10 minutes’, which later became ‘two hours’, and afterward, ‘three hours.’ Later in the evening, it was no longer possible to reach him on the phone. Frustrated by this attitude, Dr Sanusi approached the security operatives to request that the team be allowed to go out and board the buses the NFF eventually hired. This request was rejected with insults. It took the intervention of the NFF dignitaries to prevent what would have escalated into a row as the NFF President himself was not spared when he heard an exchange of voices between the security personnel and his General Secretary. This aggravated the tension and further frustrated the team.
10) Hour after hour, and with mounting frustration, delegation members, particularly the players, grew restless. There was no food or water provided by the LFF, or where to even procure these items, and there was no network or internet connection at the airport. These swiftly increased the level of frustration and anger.
11) At past midnight, it was learnt that there had been word from ‘higher authorities’ (Libya is a jurisdiction governed by two different administrations – an UN-recognized cabinet in Tripoli and a self-imposed team over Eastern Libya including places like Benghazi and Labraq) that the Nigeria delegation should be delayed for a minimum of 10 hours at the airport for what they falsely claimed was done to their team in Nigeria. (All conversations between the NFF General Secretary and the LFF General Secretary on the match in Uyo, both written text and voice notes, are still in the NFF General Secretary’s phone)
12) The NFF team was shocked because the incident referred to in Nigeria was entirely generated by the Libyans. They informed the NFF that their contingent would be landing in Port Harcourt, and not Uyo, only two hours to the team’s arrival in Nigeria. Despite this, the NFF moved swiftly to get authorities to grant their aircraft movement permit from Port Harcourt to Uyo, but this was jettisoned as the LFF apparently did not cherish the additional fee dispatched by the charter company. They opted to travel by road, refused to use the buses hired by the NFF and instead hired their own, and disrespected advice not to travel by night. When they stuck to their guns to move by night, the NFF provided security. The NFF even provided the team training facility the day after the match and secured a direct flight permit from Uyo to Benghazi for the delegation.
13) Infuriated, the NFF President reacted: “We anticipated some shocks here given the false account of what happened in Nigeria as narrated by their team captain. But we did not expect these shenanigans. What I am seeing is despicable and has no place in the game of football which is meant to foster excellent relationships among nations and bring peoples from diverse cultures, religious persuasions and economic and political interests together in an ambience of peace and joy.”
14) The NFF learnt that the Embassy of Nigeria in Tripoli had written, a fortnight earlier, to the authorities in Benghazi that they would want to welcome the Nigeria delegation on arrival. This application was said to have been rejected outright.
15) In a conscious effort to play down their frustration, anger and hunger, players and officials resorted to playing games, listening to music, chatting themselves up, scanning through the airport exit door to see if any vehicles had arrived, and generally looked forward to daybreak, which they hoped would bring much-sought-after relief.
16) Many calls were made to higher authorities in Nigeria to apprise them of the situation, and these persons all expressed fears for the safety and security of the team. These fears were real and justified given the plethora of threats thrown by the Libyans on legacy and social media in the days before and after the match in Uyo. At 2 am, Captain William Ekong met the NFF President in the company of the NFF General Secretary to inform the President that the team may not be able to go ahead with the match, due to trauma, fatigue and body aches that resulted from lack of food, dehydration and very cruel and unimaginable treatment, which had led to some players falling ill.
17) The NFF repeated calls to officials of the Confederation of African Football, Nigeria’s FIFA Council Member Mr. Amaju Melvin Pinnick and higher authorities in Nigeria. It dispatched a letter to CAF in which it detailed the antics of the hosts and hoped that the continental governing body would go ahead to “punish this rare bestiality visited on the beautiful game.” It noted that the Super Eagles had traveled hoping to enjoy a great game of football but had been sorely disappointed and frustrated by the unprecedented level of hostility and poor attitude of the hosts.
18) At daybreak, Mr. Maurice Eromosele, president of the Nigerian community in Eastern Libya, arrived with words of empathy from the Ambassador of Nigeria to Libya, His Excellency Alhaji Muhammad Muhammad. He expressed shock at the treatment meted out to the Nigeria delegation, who were made to spend the entire night inside the departure lounge of the Al-Abraq Airport. He said His Excellency ordered him to get a few things for the team, and he later returned with plastic bags loaded with croissants and drinks. These served as breakfast for the team.
19) More calls were made and eventually, it was agreed by all parties that the team should not go ahead with the match, but return to Nigeria to await the decision of CAF (who were briefed in detail on the situation) with regards to the un-played match.
20) After spending many more hours waiting for the Al-Abraq airport authorities to sell fuel to refill the chartered ValueJet aircraft (which was initially proving to be some sort of robotic engineering), the Nigeria delegation departed the Al-Abraq Airport (not worth the toga of ‘international’ by any scale) at exactly 15.05hours, bound for the city of Kano, and onwards to the Federal Capital, Abuja.
Customs
AfCFTA scribe commends Nigeria Customs over deployment of trade facilitation tools for efficient service delivery
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The high point of the conversation was the recent achievement of Mrs Chinwe Ezenwa, CEO of LE LOOK Nigeria Limited, who became the first woman to export goods under the Guided Trade Initiative (GTI) of the AfCFTA to East, Central, and North African countries.
A key outcome of the meeting was the AfCFTA Secretariat’s commitment to develop a concept note outlining the way forward for the free trade area.
The Biashara Afrika, now in its second edition, has established itself as a formidable platform for engagement between African public and private actors on the effective implementation of the AfCFTA.
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