April 13, (THEWILL) – Travellers on the Benin-Ore Expressway have reportedly recounted unpleasant encounters with operatives of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, who often demand the clearance documents for their cars.
According to the travellers, the Customs officers stop the cars at designated check points on the road and ask to see their clearance papers.
Failing to produce the documents, the owner of the car would be ordered to proceed to a certain ‘house’ somewhere on the road where the matter would then be settled.
The exercise is so bad that affected car owners have started making and posting videos online to notify the Comptroller- General of the NCS to call his officers to order.
They argue, quite rightly, that the papers are the same that had been used to clear the cars at the ports and so they are being unnecessarily subjected to the same screening all over again.
Frequent travellers on the 200-kilometre road, which stretches from Lagos to Benin City in Edo State, can testify to the presence of NCS personnel on that part of the road, particularly before Ofosu. Many of the operatives are armed.
Although it is within the purview of the Customs to demand such clearance papers as claimed by motorists, the question is where should this enforcement be done and how often?
However, the undebatable aspect of this whole matter is the presence of Customs officers on the country’s motorways. Recently, an Appeal Court ruling banned these men from the country’s motorways and the Ore/Benin axis of the Lagos-Benin motorway is one of such routes affected by the court ruling. In other words, what the men of the Customs are doing on that motorway is illegal and amounts to sheer extortion, which is punishable by imprisonment for up to 14 years under the country’s laws.
For the avoidance of doubt, Justice Ntong Ntong in the said judgment of the Court of Appeal, Kaduna, delivered on 19, December 2024, barred the Nigeria Customs Service from patrolling highways across the country.
According to the judgement, the Court of Appeal in Kaduna declared that the Nigerian Customs Service lacked the authority to patrol highways and seize goods from citizens.
Interestingly, that ruling was made in response to an appeal filed by the NCS against a Federal High Court judgment that acquitted a businessman, Suleiman Mohammed, of charges related to the importation of foreign goods which were seized from the businessman around June 2019.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) lacks the authority to patrol highways or seize goods from market buyers under the guise of enforcing importation bans.
According to Justice Ntong Ntong, speaking for a three-member panel, the Kaduna-Zaria Expressway is not a land border and therefore does not fall within Customs’ jurisdiction for enforcing trade restrictions.
In pursuit of the ruling, the court ordered the immediate release of 613 bags of foreign rice, 80 bags of millet worth approximately N200 million and a truck impounded from Mohammed in 2019. Justice Ntong ruled that Mohammed, who purchased the goods from the Central Market in Gusau, Zamfara State, was merely a buyer and not an importer.
Justice Ntong said, “The Nigeria Customs Service has no right to patrol highways or expressways to arrest individuals and confiscate goods under the guise of importation bans.”
The court noted that Customs’ enforcement powers are limited to Nigeria’s borders, where contraband goods typically enter the country.
This is a ruling the NCS brought upon itself by appealing a High Court ruling by a businessman. So why is it difficult for the NCS to comply? Or doesn’t it see that the actions of its men are disrespectful of due process and a recourse to self-help until the case is appealed, perhaps at the Supreme Court?
As an agency of government, it behoves on the NCS to uphold the rule of law and respect the rights and dignity of Nigeria citizens. We understand that the NCS is under obligation to meet certain monetary targets for the revenue drive of the government. But must that not be at the expense of the violation of the rights of the citizenry and disobedience to the rule of law? We do not think so and urge the NCS authorities to remove its men from the motorways and confine them within its jurisdiction as prescribed by the law.
