Days smugglers freely maimed officers now over – Dimka

The Federal Operations Unit, an anti-smuggling arm of the Nigeria Customs Service, may have adopted new measures to ensure a daily seizure of contraband goods from smugglers and illicit goods traders, into the command. Head of the Command, acting Comptroller Victor Dimka, who disclosed this in Lagos, expressed his determination to give smugglers a run for their vocation, adding that officers and men of the command had been ordered to march fire with fire with any dare devil smuggler, who attempts to go violent to escape with his illicit goods.

“If any smuggler raises gun against a Customs officer any day, we (Customs) would gun him down,” he said.

Positing that the days smugglers had field days, running into the country in convoys of smuggled vehicles and contraband were over, Dimka said the present management in Abuja was not only interested in meeting government’s revenue targets, but also poised to ensure that there is protection of lives of those officers expected to assist government meet revenue target.

“They have continued to maim our officers at will. They have flouted government’s regulations and laws at will. But those days are now over. We will not attack them first. But if they attack us, we would get them maimed,’’ the acting Comptroller warned, adding that the unit recorded 816 seizures with duty-paid value of over one billion naira.

He expressed satisfaction that the command within the first quarter of the year successfully ensured the conviction of five persons, even as no fewer than 105 suspects were undergoing prosecution for offences not unconnected with smuggling.

Dimka warned that while the free trade liberalisation scheme allowed any Nigerian to buy a car from Cotonou and bring it in, buyers must pay all Customs duties, advising that members of the public who might want to exercise such rights should ensure they buy cars from importers who paid customs duties, noting that this was why cars were being seized more from the borders than at the ports.

Asked why he continued to shy away from popular car markets like the Berger and Sunrise car markets in Lagos, he said it was to avoid heavy casualty which might be recorded if Customs decides to raid such places, searching for smuggled vehicles.

“If we decide to go into Berger market to pick up smuggled vehicles, there would be serious bloodshed because we are armed and the sellers are not,” he said, adding that if anybody was however arrested by officers after buying a car from Berger without the necessary duty paid on such a car, the buyer might be given bail after producing the seller.

Explaining why the Service had suddenly become mobile, proactive and committed, he said the Comptroller-General, Dikko Abdullahi, and his management team had done so much within the shortest time by transforming the service and providing enhanced welfare as well as the necessary logistics and tools for fighting smuggling, like patrol vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Association of Car Dealers in Western Zone may have visited the FOU command to pledge their co-operation to the Service.

An impeccable source which disclosed this said it was after the FOU command secured the conviction of some car sellers through legal options that the association visited the command, pointing out that their visit also resulted in agreement with the FOU Boss, that the visitors tell their group to pay Customs duties.

Source : Tribune

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