The National Secretary of the Association of Registered Freight Forwarders, Nigeria (ARFFN), Chidi Anthony Opara, has called on the Nigerian Customs Service to reconsider its policy on highway patrol as this has been creating incessant problems between customs officers and commuters on Nigerian highways.

In a statement made available to News Express, Opara, a former National Officer, Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), said: “Without prejudice to the provisions of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA), I am hereby, in my personal capacity as a stakeholder, advising the management of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to reconsider its highways patrol policy.

“The Nigeria Customs Service highways patrols are known to have often times resulted in problems between the patrol personnel and commuters, which I am sure, are not the intention of the patrol policy.”

According to Opara, insisting on following the provisions of the law in everything and all times would sometimes create problems, as everything should not necessarily be hinged on legality.

He called on the Nigeria Customs Service to retrain and further equip its intelligence unit, known as Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU), saying that if this is done, “it would be the duty of the unit to gather and pass intelligence on smuggling activities to the enforcement unit for necessary actions, instead of the present system of sending patrols to the highways.

“The management of Nigeria Customs Service should also order its commands and zones to activate and sustain a viable system of interactions with stakeholders and the public before policies are formulated,” Mr. Opara noted.

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