By Mohammad Ibrahim
Kaduna (Nigeria) — Chairman, Kantin Kwari Board of Trustees in Kaduna State, northwest Nigeria, Bature Abdul’aziz has appealed to Federal government to reopen the Northern border for the importation of rice into the country.
He equally urged the Government to forgive those responsible for the past fraudulent poor custom duty revenue collection in the country.
Abdulaziz urged government to have compassion on the suffering masses as its previous decision was a respite before the calamity of lack of transparency befell its good gesture.
He advised government to appoint worthy people in the rice importation to sooth present hard time and advocated for support from Nigerians for the present government’s success, while disowning all divisible clogs for our benefits and success of the 202020.
Abdulaziz further called on Comptroller General of Customs, Colonel Ahmeed Ali (rtd) to immediately wade into the alleged ongoing secret deal on over N3billion worth of textiles seized by the Customs Service in Kano.
“Textiles were said to have been seized, about 18 months ago as contraband from the ware houses of textiles traders/dealers at the Kantin Kwari market Kano and stored in the Customs ware house, Kano.
“The merchandise belongs to certain Asians and Nigerian merchants based in Kano. The textiles, seized during President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had federal government agreement under a committee that they should be charged the due custom duty for the owners to clear them
“But were instead being pilfered by certain members of the committee set up to resolve with the custom on the duty to be paid on them,” he said.
Abdulaziz who disclosed this to newsmen in Kaduna said the call is inevitable “as about half of the textiles consignment seems to have disappeared.
Abdulaziz who was also the chairman of the committee to resolve with the Customs, but withdrew when it was factioned and politicised, expressed fear warned that “if no action is taken immediately or nothing is done urgently, the remainder will be gradually pilfered until they fizzle out and where they were kept in the Custom warehouse is empty.”
The chairman pointed out that the owner dealers are agitated and “we do not want it to be seen as the fault of the federal government which has good intentions for the traders;” and appealed to the Comptroller General, Colonel Ahmeed Ali (rtd) to involve in the case to see how it could be resolved for the traders and government to have their due shares respectively.
He emphasized that textiles have a three year expiring period in store and called on Colonel Ahmed Ali to compel those responsible for the goods to be cleared by the dealers and federal government customs duty paid to it to be resolute.
“We are still prepared to honestly ensure that this issue is well resolved. There are still some trusted members of the committee that are interested and can be re-engaged in the settlement. The federal government should embark on stringent measures to deal with this issue, instead of allowing some of those to settle it to illegally enrich themselves,” he declared.
