NEW YOERK: Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde on Tuesday accused some unscrupulous elements within the law enforcement agencies as well as regulatory bodies of jeopardising the economic prospects of the country by aiding smuggling activities across the borders.
He said the recent seizure of contraband goods worth N480 billion in Kano State showed total failure on the part of government agencies to undertake their statutory functions.
Speaking in Abuja at a one-day forum of the customs and textile value chain stakeholders, he said there are bad eggs within the law enforcement and government agencies, which work with smugglers to sabotage the country.
However, he noted the customs would support the textile manufacturing sector to make it an instrument for employment generation but stressed that information sharing was critical for detection and fight against crime.
Dikko also said he would rather resign honorably than to compromise under pressure from any quarters.
He said the service would revisit a recent directive by the federal government to remove Africa Prints from the Import Infrastructure list, adding that the customs was not carried along in the decision.
He also faulted a proposed move to give N5000 monthly allowance to the unemployed youths stressing that he would prefer that the money be committed to providing jobs instead.
He said efforts must be made by all stakeholders to curtail the adverse impact of economic saboteurs within and outside the country who do not have the national interest at heart.
He said: “And I want to assure members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) in any way, I am not under stress or pressure, I am doing my duty diligently and I have no fear for anybody. And I want to assure you that the day I am asked to compromise, I will rather choose the path of honour because I have a name to protect.
He said: “I would rather leave but I am sure the government of today is a government of rule of law, it’s a government that has a passion for the development of this country. We have seen what is going on in Kano. There is a total failure of government agencies to undertake their statutory functions of government agencies. We have consumer protection agency, we have the standards organisation we have the immigration and we have the customs.”
Continuing, he said: “And among these agencies, I will not stand here and tell you lies…we have bad eggs, the people who are doing this business together with these people (smugglers). And unless we put ourselves together and fight the evaders and unscrupulous elements among our society- 98 per cent of crime detection in the world are done through information. You can call a person and send him to do a particular job. If you don’t monitor through the information of his own activities, then get ready for disappointment. And that’s where we find ourselves.”
On the directive to remove Africa Prints from the tariff plan, he said: “Suddenly, African Print was just being removed from the import infrastructure list. But I stand before you to say that the procedure that was followed was illegal because for any item that is going to be removed, added or subtracted from tariff must have to pass through tariff technical committee. But we only saw a circular suddenly that African Print is being removed from the Import Prohibition list.”
Continuing, he said: “I am not aware that the technical committee has sat because technically if the technical committee had sat to amend it my officers should be there-there’s a desk officer who would go there but I have not been briefed about it.
“So basically we have to look at it and find out where exactly has it originated from and has it had the blessing of Mr. President, does it have the blessing of the Federal Executive Council or somewhere something went below.”
