Senate Threatens Customs, Says ‘Don’t Dare Us’ Over Not Returning Seized Rice and Money From the Ibadan Market

By theGazetteNGR

Editorinchief

Posted: May 10, 2021 at 12:36 PM, Updated: September 21, 2022 at 7:44 AM

if you donâ€™t comply with our order, we have options!

The Nigeria Senate’s Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions is expected to clash with the Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), headed by Colonel Hameed Ali (retd), over the revenue-generating agency’s refusal to comply with a committee resolution asking it to return bags of rice confiscated from the Oja Oba market in Oyo State.

After meeting with the aggrieved market women and NCS officers led by Assistant Comptroller General Garba Mohammed last week, the Senate committee led by Senator Ayo Akinyelure urged him to ensure that the confiscated goods were returned to the affected traders within two weeks, their shops were opened, and the money taken from the shops was equally returned.

The NCS officers raided the market last week and carted away eight truckloads of rice and money found in the affected traders’ shops. Individual senators raised concerns that the NCS’ operation violated the Customs Act and an Executive Order signed by former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2007 authorizing the agency to only impound smuggled goods within a 40-kilometer radius of the border.

However, during an interview with journalists in Lagos last week, NCS spokespersons Joseph Attah and Timi Bomodi indicated that the revenue-generating agency would not comply with the Senate resolutions.

The pair insisted that the midnight raid on the market was justified under Section 147 of the Customs and Excise Act, and urged the Senate to limit itself to lawmaking.

Senator Kola Balogun, who represents Oyo South and is a member of the committee, warned the NCS not to start a war it couldn’t win or finish in a phone interview with the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday.

He vowed that the committee would look at other ways to ensure that the Ali-led Customs Service complied with its resolutions on the return of confiscated goods to their rightful owners. Senator Balogun also dismissed the agency’s spokesmen as uninformed Nigerians who are unaware of the National Assembly’s legislative obligations.

â€œThe statement credited to Customs was nonsensical, it
doesnâ€™t make sense. It also means that it must be coming from someone
who is so uninformed about the powers of the legislature.

â€œYes, we have the powers to make laws, we also have what we call
oversight powers the legislature, and they are instruments for nation
building.

â€œThe legislature is an institution which represents the collective
interest of the citizenry, through the enactment of laws and the
exercise of oversight functions on the activities of the Executive arm
of government.

â€œThe legislature in a democracy exists as an independent institution
which deepens democracy and ultimately, strengthens the polity.

â€œThis is where they are getting it wrong. It is wrong to say we are
usurping the powers of the judiciary. No! Thatâ€™s not what we are doing.
We enact laws and we also can talk about the application of that law. In
any case, where there are procedural errors on the part of those who

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are to execute the law, it is our duty to call them to order.

â€œIt isnâ€™t about interpreting the law. They also admit during our
interactions with them, because we put it to them that even going by the
so-called Customs Act that they are brandishing to oppress the people
of this country, we put it to them that do they also realise that they
werenâ€™t supposed to go there in the absence of the shop owners?

â€œThe excuse they are giving is that because they have to minimise the
incidence of violence because when the owners are there, they would
resist. Is that enough excuse for you to break the law? Is that an
excuse for them to circumvent the Act that they are using to protect as
an alibi to defend their nefarious activities?

â€œWhat they did was purely armed robbery. How can you go there and
pick peopleâ€™s money? Now they are saying they only found N6,000 they
took from the shops and the shop owners are saying something different.
If you count any money while you were there, in whose presence did you
take the money?â€

Senator Balogun, who did not give details on the Senate Committee
next of action if the NCS ignored its resolution at the end of its two
weeks deadline, however, warned of dire consequences for the revenue
generating agency.

â€œAt the meeting with them, remember Senator Smart Adeyemi had already served them notice.

He said:

â€œif you donâ€™t comply with our order, we have options!

â€œOf course, we have other options but I wonâ€™t tell you what the
options are until the two weeks must have expired and then we go back to
meet and then also report to the Senate. I think they had better not
start a war they can neither win nor finish, because it is going to be
very unfortunate for them. The laws are made for people, not people made
for the laws.

â€œWe have problem of insecurity, arms and ammunition are coming
through the borders, they arenâ€™t policing these borders but running
after rice sellers in market places!â€