Nigeria Customs justifies ban on vehicles
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has justified the recent ban on vehicle imports through the land border.
The service said that the ban was aimed at checkmating the smuggling of arms and ammunition which were usually concealed in vehicles and ferried into the country.
Comptroller-General, NSC, Col. Hammed Ali (rtd), said besides the primary motive of using the ban as a means of boosting the nation’s economy, another major reason was the need to curb smuggling of arms concealed inside imported vehicles through land borders.
Col. Ali made the comment in Abuja during this year’s World Customs Day (WCO) with the theme: ‘Data Analysis for Effective Border Management.
“In terms of what we have achieved so far with the ban on vehicles, we are just 26 days on it today . It will take time to really get this thing driven to our stakeholders. But the actual fight is; we want to boost the economy of this great nation by bringing back those monies that are exiting this country and most especially we want to tackle the security of this great country.
“We discovered that it is through the importation of these cars that most people smuggle their arms and ammunition. They squeezed them in to these cars and drive into the country. That was why we have proliferation of arms in this country and we can’t allow that to continue,” Ali added.
