•We’ll use soldiers to block illegal paths -Customs
•Vehicles without VIN will be impounded -FRSC
•Fayawo boys: How many bush paths can govt monitor?
•We can’t pay children’s school fees -Car dealers
•Ban will boost port business, revenue –NPA
The Nigerian Senate’s motion on midweek, rejecting the Federal Government’s ban on importation of vehicles through the country’s land borders, though did not carry the force of law, put an official seal on the groundswell of opposition that trailed the policy by interested parties, who had said that the policy, if not reversed, would put paid to their sources of livelihood.
Adopting a motion sponsored by Barau Jibrin, the Senate called on the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to immediately suspend further action on the policy. Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the session, said, “From the contributions made, it is obvious that the policy is unpopular. We are representatives of the people and the people have spoken through us that they do not want this policy. I think those in government should listen to them.”
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The Seme Border Command Chapter of the Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) set the ball rolling against the policy during its press conference on December 26, 2016, saying the ban was in bad taste as it did not put into consideration the investments of the importers, whose vehicles were already onboard vessels heading to the Benin and Togo ports before the announcement.
Chairman of the association, Bisiriyu Fanu warned that if the ban was not reversed or a window of three to six months granted to allow the importers bring in all the vehicles they had ordered before the ban, their businesses would be ruined and they would no longer be able to guarantee the employment of their staff, pay the loans they took from banks and fend for their families.
The group further warned that not only would the ban cause loss of huge revenue to government, no fewer than 500,000 jobs (among artisans, drivers and ‘motor boys’, freight forwarders, food vendors and others) would be lost. It was added that the policy could further lead to youth restiveness and upsurge in smuggling across the Nigerian and Benin Republic border.
Similarly, auto dealers along the Lagos- Badagry Expressway and the Berger Bridge on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway berated the Federal Government for introducing the policy.
They wondered how the government would want Nigerians to move from one place to the other as the country did not have a robust automotive manufacturing industry, nothinh that the few vehicles assembled in the country were priced out of the reach of the average Nigerian.
Some of the importers, however, confided in our correspondent that they were working on plans to ‘fly in’ (smuggle) into Nigeria, their vehicles trapped at the Benin Republic end of country’s frontiers with the French speaking West African neighbour.
Some of the measures, it was disclosed, was to engage the youths of the border communities to drive in the vehicles through unapproved border routes, while car dealers in Lagos would forge customs papers indicating that the vehicles were legally imported into the country through the Lagos ports.
But Sunday Telegraph checks at the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Lagos State Vehicle Licensing office at the weekend revealed that those who bought such vehicles with fake customs papers would be making the mistake of his lives as they would be easily detected by the system and such cases would be referred to the Nigerian Customs Service.
The affected vehicle would be treated as contraband, Customs Federal Operation Unit, Zone A, Lagos stated. Lagos Sector Commander of FRSC, Mr. Hyginus Omeje, further warned motorists to ensure that they register their vehicles. Any unregistered vehicles would not have Vehicle Indemnification Number and would be arrested.
At the time of going to press however, Sunday Telegraph could not confirm if vehicles with fake customs paper could also not be registered in all the states of the federation and Abuja.
However, at the popular Berger Bridge Car Market on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, our correspondent learnt that car dealers there are determined to continue to sell their smuggled vehicles with fake documents, saying the ban had made smuggling the only way they could remain in business and survive the recession which had already made trading in cars unattractive due to the exorbitant prices of vehicles occasioned by the deprecation of naira value. “I have already sacked my six staff.
I now do all the menial jobs my staff used to do so that I will be able to feed my family. If I don’t find a way out of this, the ban is a passport to return to my village,” Biodun Abimbola, Managing Director of Legacy Motors at the Berger car market said.
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Managing Director of New Era Motors, Mazamaza, Lagos, Mr. Obianauju Mbanefo, said the ban was insensitive to the plight of Nigerians in an economy plagued by recession.
He said he was already finding it difficult to take care of his family “My wife and children are still in the village after the Christmas and New Year celebration, though the schools have resumed. I have left them to stay there because I don’t have money to pay school fees yet. The five vehicles I have in my shop here are all SUVS.
They have been there for close to eight months. I have not been able to sell any because of the high prices people run once they hear the prices I imported smaller vehicles hoping that people will go for them because they will be cheaper but now they are trapped at Benin. Government has to reconsider this policy because it is inhuman,” Mbanefo said.
When reminded that only vehicles brought into Nigeria through the land borders were banned, he said the cost of clearing vehicles at the Nigerian ports is so exorbitant that the importer would prefer to take all the risks to bring in the vehicles through the borders so that he could break even at the end of the transaction.
“No importer in his right senses will import through the port because of the terminal charges and import duties which is on the high side. Government must look into these areas if it wants importers to start to patronize the Nigerian seaports.”
Some border community ‘boys’ who spoke to Sunday Telegraph at Owode, a border town between Nigeria and Benin Republic, condemned the policy, saying it was aimed at cutting off their source of livelihood, even as the government has not made any attempt to provide an alternative for them. The boys, (called Fayawo in local yoruba parlance) vowed to continue in the trade (smuggling), wondering how many bush parts government would be able to block.
One of the ‘boys’ who simply identified himself as Dele, a native of the border town, said he had not done any other job all his life, except ferrying goods across the border.
“We will go back to the old ways we have been doing it since government is not interested in the money (Customs Duty) we have been paying to customs,” he said. But the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of Seme, Comptroller Victor Dimka, assured that the command would strictly enforce the ban, saying the feat the command achieved in locking the border against smuggling of rice would be replicated on the ban on vehicle importation through the land borders.
“The ban on importation of vehicles through the land borders, as was announced by the Federal Government, meant that we will just retighten our belts because it is very difficult to see vehicles smuggled through Seme even before the ban.
So what is going to happen is just to strengthen what we have and make sure we deploy officers to all the likely routes the smugglers could follow. We have also discovered, through intelligence, new routes they are creating but by the time we finish, we are going to move officers there permanently. “There is also going to be a combined force from the Command, Federal Operations, Compliance Team and even the Military to ensure total blockage.
Believe me, the war is going to be fierce because you know most of them in this vicinity (border communities) see smuggling as a birthright, so they will want to try but we will resist them,” he said.
Reacting to the ban, Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman, assured that her management would strive to eliminate everything that inhibit trade facilitation in the Nigerian seaport, saying they would bring back to the ports, Nigerian-bound cargoes which, before, were going to the ports of the neighbouring countries. Nigerian ports are gradually becoming redundant.
A visit to the Five Star Logistics Terminal and Port Multiservice Limited (PTNL), the two main RORO Terminals in the Lagos ports, revealed that the terminals were now almost the shadow of the old selves, as they were almost empty, with activities at the lowest ebb.
Chukwuemeka Anazado, an importer, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph at the Five Star Logistics Terminal, said the main attraction to the neighbouring ports had always been the lower port cost (which include tariff and cost of clearing goods and turnaround time)
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