Customs Agents Encourage Importers on Trade Crime Leading to Seizures of Huge Investments, Says ANLCA President

By Francis Ugwoke
The issue of non-compliance to trade regulations which has led to many importers losing huge investments annually can be partly traced to some freight forwarders, the President of the Association of Nigerian Customs Agents (ANLCA), Chief Emenike Nwokeoji has said.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) last year seized goods worth N16billions from importers who chose to keep blind eyes to trade rules and regulations.
Some of the importers were involved in under-declarations, concealment, under-valuation of their goods, or smuggling through unapproved border routes.
However, those who were not lucky ran into the waiting arms of the customs operatives in what led to seizures of the goods or other penalties.


Nwokeoji in an exclusive interview with SHIPPING DAY indicated that some importers have remained recalcitrant in keeping away from trade crimes that lead to seizures, adding that unfortunately they are being encouraged by some customs agents.
He said, “…I must tell you that some of our members , with due respect, encourage importers to do that (non-compliance- under-declaration/concealment). But if you discourage your importer, but what happens in our own case… is like the lawyer. There are some cases in this country and some people will say nobody will defend this man, but before you know it, prominent lawyers will go and defend the person . I raised that issue with a lawyer sometimes and the response was … he said “yes, we can go there and use technicality and set the man free. And the man will see you as a good lawyer, even the world will see you as a good lawyer. “So, if you refuse such bid, another lawyer will do it and take the credit”. So, there is hunger in the land, and it is difficult to even keep yourself clean. It is difficult to tell your importer that what you are doing is not good”.
When asked on what ANLCA is doing to ensure that the importers change, Nwokeoji said what the body has been doing has been to sensitise its members on ‘knowing their clients well’ in case any issue arises.
He said, “We don’t have a forum where we reach the importers. We reach our agents for instance, we know what is happening in the country about importation of some dangerous items, hard drugs. So, we advise our members to know that customers well. This is because as they open the container, if anything there is so offensive, the agent is the first point of arrest. Then , it is now your duty to go and start looking for the importer.
He added, “On under-declaration, who is the declarant? It is the importer that calls you that he has imported goods, you were not there when he loaded, you are not part of the negotiation between him and the supplier. He is only telling you , he has 20ft container and is carrying tyre and he will give you the document. And you will see some of the units inside, the day you are seeing this cargo is the same day all the agencies of government are seeing it. You don’t have any opportunity of going to open the container before anybody to check whether the declaration is the same with the content. And you can’t even break the seal without customs being there. You cannot touch the seal otherwise you go to jail. It is the customs that will break the seal of the container, the seal has a number. They will take it, record the number, yes , they have seen the number before coming. It is in the manifest. They will break it and take sample of it to their office to show before I came, it was sealed, look at the seal, this is part of it, they have a place where they keep seals, they are the first to see it and they open the container not the clearing agent. But they will always heap it on the agent. The agent did not travel abroad to go and ship these things. So, the declaration, the concealment, under-valuation… no no. That is why we are agents. That is why in our terms, when we declare we say, “1 x 20ft container said to container (STC)”. It is always written in all our documents. Because we are not there”.

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