The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has debunked some media reports that the Federal Government has lifted the ban on vehicle importation through the Seme border.
Mr Hussaini Abdullahi, Customs Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Seme Area Command, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Seme, Lagos State.
Abdullahi explained that the service had not made such a pronouncement at all, though a proposal was written by some freight forwarders to the Federal Government following advice from Prince Ademola Adegoroye, the then Minister of State for Transportation.
He said that the former minister had visited the border to inaugurate some projects sometime in February when the freight forwarders put up a complaint to him about how the ban had affected them.
He added that the minister had advised the freight forwarders and members of the border community then to put their requests in writing.
The Customs spokesman said that a recent visit by the Director of Road Transport in the Ministry of Transportation, Ibrahim Musa, only confirmed that the letter by the freight forwarders had been received and acted upon by the ministry by forwarding it to higher authority.
NAN reports that Seme border was among the four land borders reopened by the Federal Government on Dec.16, 2020 by the then Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed.
Before reopening the four land borders, the Federal Government had on Aug. 21, 2019, ordered the closure of Nigerian borders to curb smuggling of goods and weapons. (NAN)