The Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs Service, Wale Adeniyi has given conditions that could lead the federal government into reopening of the Seme Border for importation of vehicles, Rice and others.
Adeniyi visited the Seme-Krake Joint Border Post on Friday
and was given a carnival-like reception by Seme Customs Command led by
Comptroller Dera Nnadi, with the host communities, the importers, clearing
agents, truckers among others.
Comptroller General of Customs, Wale Adeniyi (left) and Area
Controller Seme Border Command, Compt Dera Nnadi during an interactive session
with stakeholders at the border on Friday.
Speaking at a meeting with the business community, Adeniyi
said that reopening of the borders fully, depends on the readiness of the local
communities to corporate with the customs and other law enforcement agents in
combating insecurity and smuggling.
According to him, the security agencies need intelligence
from the communities on the nefarious activities of smugglers, and to properly
protect the border areas against illicit importations.
“It is going to be a symbiotic relationship that would be
beneficial to all of us. By the time this is done, we can now start discussing
about allowing vehicles to come in through the borders.
We can now start considering allowing food to also come in
through the borders if we cannot have enough capacity to feed ourselves.
“These are conversations that would happen within us when we
have gotten assurances from the communities that they would be ready to assist
the agencies in doing their job” he said.
Thee customs CG also assured that the issue of multiple
checkpoints along the Seme borders would be streamlined in conjunction with
other security agencies.
Speaking, said “Before I came here, I have received communications from the Area Controller, he had reflected a number of the burning issues which is the source of concern for the communities here.
“The list is very long, but the most important is that we
want to enhance our natural security, we want to do it with fewer number of
checkpoints. We get your message and we would be doing it with other security
agencies to see how we can rationalize the checkpoints.
“I also want to challenge you that National Security is not
the responsibility of these government agencies alone, this is the difference
between us and our counterparts in West Africa, National Security is the
business of every citizen, and all strata of the society treat it as a
priority.
“So, it should not be the business of only the security
agencies. So, as we make life easier for business, I want to charge you also to
make life and the work of our security agents easier.
“The criminals live among us, those importing arms and
ammunition live among us, they operate within our precinct, what you can do to
help our national security is to help us with information and intelligence for
us to catch these criminals visiting mayhem on our communities.
“If the security agencies can do the job with accurate
intelligence from you, then, we might not need these checkpoints again.
Like I promised, I will engage other agencies when I get
back to Abuja to see how we can streamline these checkpoints.
“The borders were closed but not all of them were reopened,
we have already started discussions along this line. Policies that are aimed at
enhancing national security are supposed to be dynamic policies, at different
times we would be reviewing them.
“We have started reviewing them, that was why some borders
were opened about one year ago. It is a continuous process, more would still be
reopened along the line.
“However, everything depend on the kind of report that gets
to the government about the capacity of the local community to support law
enforcement Agents so that criminals don’t infiltrate through these border
areas” he said.