BEIJING: The House of Representatives on Thursday resolved to probe the alleged deterioration of impounded goods worth over N1 trillion by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Prestige Ossy (PDP-Abia) who queried the inordinate attitude of NCS management towards auctioning of the seized items worth billions of naira. In his lead debate, Prestige Ossy (PDP-Abia) argued that Custom’s ban on the auction of goods seized by its personnel resulted to forfeiting such goods legally to the Federal Government. Ossy expressed worry that since the ban took effect from 2015, it had resulted to proliferation of seized goods at the various formations of the Nigerian Custom Services.
According to him, such goods which were seized in their large numbers from different parts of the country include vehicles, consumables, clothing materials and containers of assorted household goods. He observed that “most of these goods, especially the vehicles with Duty Paid Valve (DPV) worth over N6 billion are rapidly dilapidating and depreciating in value. “The Custom service will eventually spend huge amount of money in disposing them, when it ought to have generated huge revenues for the government by auctioning them before they weathered away,’’ the lawmaker said. He further expressed concern that although the service had announced to set up an auction sale website in 2015, two years later, the website has not materialised. “The failure to auction goods in its custody had denied the Federal Government over N1 trillion which ought to accrue to it from the auctioning of those goods,” Ossy said. While ruling on the motion, Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, mandated the Committee on Customs and Excise to investigate the matter with a view to determining the implications of the ban on the country’s economy and report back within eight weeks for further legislative action.
