Customs vow to enhance border community relations for improved revenue generation

The Acting Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, says the Service will continue to prioritize community relations in border areas to re-smoothen the discharge of its constitutional mandates.

Customs spokesperson Abdullahi Maiwada, in a statement on Thursday, said Adeniyi disclosed this when he received members of the Senate ad-hoc Committee on Customs and Excise, led by Senator Francis Ade Fadahunsi, on a courtesy visit at the Service’s Corporate Headquarters, Abuja.

On Wednesday, 19th July 2023, the Senate constituted an ad-hoc Committee to investigate the alleged incessant killings of people by officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service.

The Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, set up a 7-man ad-hoc Committee during plenary after Abdulaziz Yar’adua (APC, Katsina Central) moved a motion to study Customs community relationship in the Katsina axis. He assigned Francis Fadahunsi (PDP, Osun Central), a retired Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, to chair the committee.

Speaking on the recent fact-finding mission by committee members to some border areas in the country, Adeniyi appreciated their commitment to helping Customs enhance its policy of improving border relationships.

“We can’t afford to antagonize any member of our host community. Because at the end of the day, what use is the facilitation of trade and the revenue we are generating if the communities are dead? So whatever we do, we do it in the community’s interest; that’s the community we’re serving,” he said.

Earlier, Fadahunsi, who submitted a progress report on their fact-finding visit to the CGC, assured him of the Senate’s support in resolving misunderstandings with border communities.

Senator Fadahunsi, who commended the Acting Comptroller General’s approach towards improving community relations, also assured that his committee members would maintain a cordial working relationship with the Service, which will pave the way to achieving its target.

The delegation of the committee who attended the meeting were Shuaib Salisu (Ogun Central), Kawu Sumaila (Kano South), Tony Nwoye (Anambra North), Suleiman Sadiq (Kwara North), Abdulaziz Yar’adua (Katsina Central) and Adeola Olamilekan (Ogun Central).