FOLLOWING the release of the new foreign exchange policy, the Nigeria Customs Service has pegged import duty rate at N282 to a dollar with effect from July 1.

Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali, retd, yesterday, said Nigeria lost a total of 138.9 billion, representing 35.5% in income generation expected from the agency between January and May, 2016.

THE Tin-Can Island Port Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, (NCS), weekend intercepted three twenty-feet containers carrying sub-standard cables and wires.

The Lagos State chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has filed a N500 million criminal suit against the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, over the brutal assault on one Yomi Olomofe, a journalist at Seme border post of the NCS last year.

All officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service have been ordered to make full disclosure of their assets in a new measure put in place to push transparency and compliance with the Rule of Law.

MOTORISTS have decried the incessant harassment and impounding of their vehicles on major highways across the country by officers of the Nigeria Customs Service, (NCS).

Following the alleged invasion of their stores by about 30 officials of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Ikeja, accompanied by soldiers, market women, who deal in parboiled rice at Mile 2 Oke/Under-bridge Market, in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, staged a peaceful protest to the head office of Vanguard Media Limited, yesterday.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) has approved the appointment of six acting Deputy Comptrollers-General of Customs in the ongoing re-organisation in the Service.

DESPITE the recent strike called by the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, Apapa area, Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has generated N221,929,294,437 between January and September.

DIRECTOR-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali, rtd, has explained that he decided to lift the ban on importation of rice through land borders due largely to the great increase in the activities of smugglers of the commodity, which he noted was largely reducing the revenue generation of the agency.

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), has ordered the immediate removal of rice from import restriction list and the re-introduction of import duty payment at land borders.

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has stated that it is presently neither recruiting nor auctioning seized or overtime, adding that such activities remain suspended till further notice.

National Secretary of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Uchu Block, has warned operators in the maritime industry to brace up for problems ahead because the Nigeria Customs Service does not have all it takes to effectively operate the destination inspection scheme.

Several years ago, at a conference on Coastal Piracy in Nigeria’s Territorial Waters, I admonished a senior member of the Nigeria Customs and Immigrations Department that the Customs was the most corrupt sector of the Nigerian public service.

Do you still remember a particularly awful service experience you had in the hands of a certain organization some 10 or 15 years ago? If you do, your memory can favourably compare with that of an elephant. I understand that elephants hardly forget anything. In fact, as they grow older (especially the female) their memory gets better and becomes more useful for adaptation to the environment. Well, some customers are like that.