Members of the House of Representatives have expressed concerns over the failure of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to checkmate smuggling across Nigerian borders.
In the bid to address the challenge, the House urged Hameed Ali, the NCS comptroller-general to deploy more personnel to the borders to curtail the activities of smugglers as well as embark on continuous training and development programmes on border control techniques of its officers for optimal performance.
The lawmakers also urged Federal Government to invest more in information and communication technology (ICT) for the advancement of Customs operations with the view to improve its operational efficiency.
The resolution was passed following the adoption of the motion titled: ‘Low service delivery and exploitation of the masses by NCS’ sponsored by Olutoye Sugar, who expressed disgust over indiscriminate road blocks mounted by NCS personnel in search of goods that have already been brought into the country.
Leading the debate, Sugar, who accused NCS personnel of negligence of duties and corrupt practices, however, noted that NCS if effectively managed could be the highest revenue-generating agency of the country.
“Many factors, including connivance of the personnel in allowing contraband goods to be smuggled into the country, failure to enforce the payment of requisite duties, poor accountability of the revenues generated, preferential treatment of high net worth individuals among others are responsible for the low revenue generation by the service.
“The House is also concerned that the practice of mounting road blocks to stop vehicles conveying goods on the roads, after the goods had been brought into the country for long periods of time, a situation that ought to have been prevented in the first place or the trend of personnel of the Service invading markets in search of contraband goods,” he noted.
While ruling, Speaker Yakubu Dogara mandated the motion to the Committee on Customs for further legislative action.
