The Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Service, Bashiru Adeniyi, has disclosed that the agency would deployed technology to transport goods between the Republic of Benin and Nigeria, as part of effort to reduce smuggling.
Adeniyi, who was on a one day official visit to the Area II Ogun Command of Customs, while addressing journalists in Abeokuta, said the initiative would be piloted at the Seme-Krake border and, later replicated along other borders.
The CG noted that a working relationship had been established by the NCS and the its counterpart in the Republic of Benin, with an understanding of working together on issues bordering on exchange of information and intelligence.
“We have a robust relationship with border countries. I have been to Republic of Benin to meet with my colleague over there, and since then we have had opportunities to work together on a number of issues and they have always been forthcoming in providing the platform, we exchange information, we exchange intelligence.
” What we are doing currently is to have a Joint Task Force for processing of goods that are coming in transit to Nigeria , so we are going to deploy technology to manage transporting between the two countries. We have already developed it, we are only piloting it now in Seme-Krake border and by the time we finish the piloting , once it is successful, we are going to deploy it along the borders, it will help us to reduce smuggling.”
CG Adeniyi equally informed that the agency is collaborating with other sisters agency like the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), in
clamping down on illicit drugs importation at the ports.
He said, “One of my cardinal programmes anchored on collaboration. We can get a lot of things done when we collaborate with each other.
“I discovered that the more we work together, the more we get results.So, when Customs declare a state of emergency on airports against importation of illicit drugs into the country, what I did was to seek support of NAFDAC and NDLEA, and since then we have seen that we receive regular information, briefing from them.
“We, conducted joint operations and this has led to the seizure of over 200 containers and we did not stop at seizing them, we also came together under the coordination of the office of the National Security Adviser to ensure the destruction of those drugs, to ensure that they did not get into the wrong hands
“This is the same template that we are using in our border communities . All our customs commands around the borders are encouraged to have structures with which they relate to members of the community , because we operate there, we live with them , we also acknowledged the fact that they know the terrains where we operate . We leverage on the intelligence they provide for us in our operations .
“So, I assure you that we have a structure of collaboration and we leverage on those structure to ensure that we work in tandem with the people.”
