In continuation of its war against smuggling and the restriction of movement at land borders in some geo- political zones, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in a major crackdown at the weekend shutdown some car marts suspected to have smuggle vehicles into the country through the land borders.
It was gathered that members of the Comptroller General of Customs task force and officers attached to the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’, Ikeja stormed Ikeja, Oregun and the popular Berger along Apapa-Oshodi Express Road and other major car dealers’ premises across Lagos in search of smuggled vehicles and subsequently shut them down until further notice.
It was further learnt that the car marts were closed on the order of the Comptroller General of the Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) for allegedly retailing smuggled vehicles in the shops.
The Customs Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah who confirmed the development yesterday however denied that car dealers who are not involved in selling smuggled cars were shut down.
According to him, “Yes a number of car marts were shutdown based on credible information that there were smuggled vehicles in these car marts, but the sealing is just temporary. As from this week we will assess the situation and advised them accordingly as to what they should do.”
Asked how many dealers were shutdown, he said, “As of now I don’t have the numbers but those not involved in any bad business were not shutdown. But I can confirm that some numbers have been shutdown.
Within the week customs will take a look at the records of each vehicle in these car marts and appropriate actions will be taken.’’
Attah who also confirmed that no arrests were made added that the action was not taken to inflict harm on anyone but to ensure that government gets its due revenue.
“The target is not really to bring any unnecessary hardship to any individual, the idea is to see the possibility of either seizure or recovery of revenue for such vehicles, “he said.
A car dealer whose mart was shut around Oregun said his documents are up to date.
The dealer, Chukwudi Nwachukwu said he was surprised that his stand was shut down by the service.
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