•It’s blackmail Senator Hope Uzodinma
•‘Customs collude with importers to defraud govt’
The Senate Committee on Customs & Excise and Tariff, which on the mandate of the Nigerian Senate, is investigating alleged sharp practices like the non-payment of Customs Duty by a section of the trading public, recently alleged that it uncovered Customs Duty default by Nigerian companies to the tune of trillions of naira.
The committee had, in its interim report, alleged that the illegality was perpetuated through certain commercial banks in the country over the years and some “carefully selected” 60 big companies out of many companies, spanning diverse industries within the economy were investigated by the committee and were Debit Note (DN) to pay into a government account with the Central Bank of Nigeria, the amount they had failed to pay.
However, the backlash of this huge discovery might haunt this committee in days and weeks to come as retired senior Customs officers under the aegis of National Association of Retired Senior Officials of Nigeria Customs Service has alleged that the Senate committee constituted itself into a revenue collection agency by issuing DN and collecting receipt of revenue collected.
The Senate committee, in its interim report in October 2017, alleged that the trading public which had failed to pay their Customs Duty colluded with Customs officers.
It said that in the course of its investigation, it invited the “carefully selected” 60 big companies for questioning.
The report reads in part: “As a result of this exercise, some collection banks have made additional remittances to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the tune of N128 billion and evidence of payment and receipt have been received by the committee.
“From the selected 60 companies, over N12 billion payments have been made to the government voluntarily by the companies based on their own internal self-audit after receiving documented evidences of their culpability from our committee,” the report said.
However, the National Association of Retired Senior Officials of Nigeria Customs Service, in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, the Senate President, Acting Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Central Bank Governor and the Comptroller General of Customs, said that the Senate committee overstepped its bound as a legislative arm of government by usurping the functions of the executive arm.
It was further alleged by the petition that there is nothing altruistic or nationalistic in the action of the Senate committee.
The petition was signed by Alhaji M.N Ahamed, a retired Deputy Comptroller General of Customs as Chairman and Mr. F.T Degge, a retired Customs Comptroller, as Secretary.
The petitioners, who described themselves as whistleblowers, subsumed their allegations under the following: Unilateral issuance of DN by the committee and receipt of such payment arising from the debit notes are beyond the power of the Senate Committee on Customs as it is statutorily provided, without ambiguity, that only the Service can collect any revenue relating to import and export matters.
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Section 4 (1) of Customs and Excise Act (CEMA) 1959 states that the Customs Board shall, subject to the general control of the Minister, be charged with the duty of controlling and managing the administration of the Customs and Excise laws and shall collect the revenues of Customs and Excise and account for them in such manner as may be directed.
The retired Customs officers also accused the committee of collecting government revenue without authority and arbitrarily levying Customs Duty on importers without statutory backing.
Meanwhile, the petitioners in the letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, alleged that some government official in executive arm of government have either by omission or commission, colluded with Senator Hope Uzodinma’s committee, to defraud the Federal Government of billions of naira.
They said, ”The committee opened an account with the CBN on behalf of the Federal Government which is the prerogative of the Minister of Finance without President Buhari’s approval.”
It is against this backdrop that the group has called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to step in and investigate the culpability of the Senate committee.
The Spokesman of EFCC, Mr. Wilson Uwujaren, could not confirm if the agency has commenced investigation on the matter, saying such petitions do not come to his desk.
They also alleged that the company appointed by the committee as revenue collector for the Federal Government was done without due process including compliance with Section 19 of the Procurement Act, 2007.
But in a swift reaction, the Chairman Senate Committee on Customs &Excise and Tariff, Senator Hope Uzodinma, described the petition as blackmail and rumour mongering from retired Customs officers who colluded with the culpable companies to shortchange Nigeria of collectible revenues when they were in active service, that the Senate committee has no business collecting Customs revenues because such responsibility is not within the jurisdiction of the parliament, noting that what the committee was doing was to carry out oversight responsibilities on Nigeria Customs Service
He urged the petitioners to stop spreading rumour and blackmail and tell the importers to begin to pay government revenues that were supposed to be paid for their business activities.
He said, “What is the business of retired senior officers in the Senate investigation? Can’t you see from the look of things, that all the things we have identified and recovered are not possible without the collusion of some officers of the Nigerian Customs Service?
“So, these retired officers, I recall vividly, are officers that were in charge in those ports when these things happened. So, what do you expect them to do? They will go against the investigation because they know that at the end of the day, they will all be invited to answer their own questions.
“We are not involved in revenue collection. What we have done is to identify collectible revenues that have been abandoned, and we are urging the companies to go back. And they know that there is a procedure code for collection of Customs revenue.
“The same retired senior officers that were not able to collect those assessments allowed the cargoes to be removed from seaports. The question is, why did they do that while in service? So, I am urging them to talk to their collaborators to begin to do things right so that Nigeria can be well off for it. This attitude of using blackmail can no longer work”, Senator Uzodinma said.
Meanwhile, the Spokesman of Nigeria Customs Service, Joseph Attah, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs, said yesterday in his reaction to the petition, that the Service will comment on it after carefully studing it this week.
