The Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, Sambo DanGaladima, has advised motor dealers to approach the Federal Government to reopen the land borders in his zone, saying it is not the job of the Customs Service to reopen borders.
DanGaladima gave the directive to members of the Niger State Motor Dealers Association on Tuesday during a stakeholders meeting in which he urged them to continue to cooperate with the Customs to improve its services and generate revenue for the federal government.
The Customs boss in charge of Zone B, comprising Niger, Kogi Katsina, Kano, Kwara, Jigawa, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi FCT and Kaduna, which is the headquarters, while addressing his officers, told them that he was visiting states in his zone to sensitise them on the need to be security conscious to reduce banditry in the zone.
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“Niger, Kogi is part of zone B. We have been to Katsina, we have been to Kano and now we are in Niger going to Kwara. We will sensitise them on where to move, how to move and then do the right thing so that we will reduce this menace of banditry.
“The stakeholders know what they are doing and that is why they are clamouring for border opening but that one is a federal government issue. So they should come together and go and beg the federal government to do what they need. Here, Customs will just complement what we are asked to do,” he said.
DanGaladima gave assurance that the zone was doing everything to meet the federal government target on revenue generation, noting that the zone would succeed when the stakeholders cooperated with them to meet the target.
“It is only when they ask them to come and pay their right duties that we will generate this revenue. The revenue does not come from up, the revenue comes from our people here. It is only for you to be patriotic. When you bring a big vehicle, you pay the duty appropriately,” he said.
The National Secretary of the Motor Dealers Association, Ibrahim Kato, who spoke to newsmen on the outcome of the stakeholders meeting, disclosed that the ACG solicited the cooperation of the motor dealers, saying that the officers needed an enabling environment to perform their duties.
While assuring the Service of their maximum cooperation Kato said they made two requests to the Customs boss.
He said, “We requested that we needed the reopening of land borders. We also need an opening of payment of duties at the Niger Kogi command.
“We also requested on behalf of Kwara command that there should be an opening for us to make payment of duty because the payment of duties has been closed since 2015. So, we need it to be open.
“He assured us that they are policy issues. The border was closed and the duty payment was also closed by the presidency. So, he solicited our support as stakeholders to talk to our members in the national assembly so that they can facilitate it through the presidency.”