Abia traders lament harassment, extortion from Customs operatives

Complain to Abuja headquarters

 

Ogbonnaya Ndukwe I Wednesday, May 07, 2024

 

ABA, Abia, Nigeria – Traders in Abia State have condemned high levels of extortion of their members by officers and men of Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), now going on in the state.

They said, the Customs operatives, now mount surveillance especially in the outskirts of the major markets, to corner and apprehend vehicles loaded with goods bought in local markets, and being transitted to other cities like Port Harcourt, Enugu, Owerri, Umuahia, Uyo, and Calabar, among others, seize such vehicles and extort money from the owners, despite not being in offence of dealing in banned goods.

The traders, under the auspices of Abia State Amalgated Traders Association (ASMATA), has taken up the matter with the Abuja national headquarters of the service, with a petition, to which the service public relations department was said to have responded with promises to fish out the erring Customs officials, and reprimanding them as appropriate.

Confirming the allegations of extortion from some traders in Aba, president general of ASMATA, Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, said his office was informed of two incidents during which Customs operatives, cornered a loaded transit goods vehicle that took off from Aba to Port Harcourt, along the Obehie/Imo gate bridge, where their owners were variously extorted sums ranging between N50,000 and N100,000 respectively.

Udeigbo, said he made contacts with the NCS headquarters in Abuja, where the officials promised to look into the matter, fish out the erring officers for reprimand.

“My office received a report that a trader in one of the vehicles loaded from Eziukwu Road market, Aba, to Port Harcourt, was stopped at Obehie/Imo Gate by men of the Nigerian Customs and asked to pay ₦300,000, without being told the offence he had committed. After being held for several hours, he ended up parting with ₦50,000, which he paid before he was allowed to continue the journey.

“Again, another motor vehicle from the same market, travelling to the River State capital, was stopped and from ₦500, 000, it ended up with ₦100, 000= which the owner of the goods paid, before he was allowed to continue.

Udeigbo said the action of the Customs officials would jeopardize relationship with traders coming into Aba and infact Abia State, from other states as the cost of the goods in the markets will become highly affected by the huge money spent to haul them to their needed destinations, and appealed to the authorities to bring the culprits to book.

He lamented that while importers who actually bring in such goods into the markets settle the authorities in paying approved dues at the entry ports, before bringing them in to sell to wholesale dealers, operators of the same federal government agencies, mount illegal checkpoints along highways, to extort local traders buying and selling in small quantities, a situation he said, was contributing to hike in prices of commodities, nationwide.