Posted by Isiaka Adams and Oluyinka Akintunde on
The Federal Government has again asked the Republic of Benin to stop the incessant smuggling of textiles, rice and poultry products from the country into Nigeria or face sanctions.
The Federal Government has again asked the Republic of Benin to stop the incessant smuggling of textiles, rice and poultry products from the country into Nigeria or face sanctions.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who gave the warning in Cotonou on Tuesday night, during a visit to the neighbouring country, said that intelligence reports had indicated that Beninoise businessmen had placed large orders for these items and intended to infilterate them into Nigeria.
He warned that while the country would continue to play the ‘big brother' role in her relationship with neighbouring countries, it would not allow illegal dumping and smuggling of goods.
The Minister of State for Finance, Ministers of Agriculture and Commerce, the Attorney General of the Federation, Comptrollers-General of Customs and Immigration Service and the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council, were also on the president's entourage.
The president, however, agreed that provided that there was strong evidence that the goods were actually manufactured in Benin and duly escorted into the country, they would be allowed into Nigeria.
Customs Public Relations Officer, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, who briefed our correspondent on the outcome of the meeting in Lagos on Thursday, said that the Customs Service had been charged to ensure proper execution of the concession to avoid abuses.
Nigeria's Organised Private Sector had always alleged that Benin ports are used as transit points for goods such as rice and fairly used vehicles from European and Asian countries, which eventually find their way into Nigeria through unapproved border routes.
To this end, Nigerian Customs officers are henceforth, to be stationed at factories designated as production sites for the approved goods in Benin while Nigeria has donated 10 patrol vehicles to facilitiate joint border patrols by the Customs services of both countries.
'The agreement is that when such goods are produced under the supervision of Nigerian Customs officers stationed there, they would be escorted to the borders and allowed into Nigeria through special corridors and routes to be designated for the exercise," Adeniyi said.
According to him, the legal and regulatory framework for the exercise, which is a follow-up to an earlier Joint Consultative Committee agreement between both countries, was being fine-tuned by the office of the AGF and would be ready in three weeks.
'Actually, a lot of work has gone underground by JCC officials from Nigeria who visited factories to be designated for the exercise in Benin earlier this year, but since then, nothing has been done. There was no follow up action from the Benin government," he said.
'The discussions on Tuesday were really very frank as the president did not mince words about his desire to ensure immediate implementation of the new agreement and the Nigerian Embassy in Benin is working on the document so that when we go into the country we would not have any difficulty there," he said.
On the part of the Customs, Adeniyi said that the challenge before them was to ensure that goods from third countries are not imported into Benin and smuggled into Nigeria under the guise that they were manufactured in the neighbouring country.