{"id":22216,"date":"2019-11-03T20:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-03T19:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=22216"},"modified":"2019-11-03T20:18:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-03T19:18:16","slug":"buhari-approves-extension-of-border-closure-to-january-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=22216","title":{"rendered":"January 31, 2020 is not terminal date for border closure; stakeholders lament"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nigeria Customs Service has said January 31, 2020 contained in a leaked memo is not terminal date for the border closure.
\nThe clarification by the Customs comes amid a cacophony of complaints by farmers in border communities, cross-border traders, neighbouring countries, and other stakeholders feeling the pinch of the closure, which many say has led to loss of revenue
\nHowever, the Federal government applauds the closure because rice farmers, the Customs, among others are getting increased revenue from the closure. The Department of State Services has also spoken of better security.
\nContrary to the impression created by a leaked internal memo, the Public Relations Officer, NCS, Mr Joseph Attah, disclosed that the January 31, 2020 in the memo was only the end of the first phase of the operation, not the terminal date for the entire border closure.
\nHe said the borders would remain closed indefinitely until the objectives of the government for the operation had been fully achieved, according to a report in The Punch.
\nHe said, \u201cThis is not the terminal date; it\u2019s just for this phase. You know operations of this type are in phases. January 31, 2020 is the end of this phase. The exercise will continue until the set objectives are achieved.\u201d
\nAttah added that security officers on the field would be notified of further development about the second phase of the border closure\u00a0\u00a0 before January 31.
\nEarlier, the Comptroller General, NCS, Hameed Ali, had declared that the borders would remain closed until Nigeria\u2019s neighbours decided to respect ECOWAS protocol concerning trade within the subregion.
\nPresident Muhammadu Buhari, according to the memo, had approved the extension of the closure of the nation\u2019s borders with neighbouring countries to January 31 next year.
\nThe operation, code-named Exercise Swift Response, had resulted in joint border patrols by a combined team of security agencies.
\nThe Deputy Comptroller of Customs in charge of Enforcement, Investigation and Inspectorate, Victor Dimka, conveyed the presidential directive in a memo to the sector coordinators.
\nThe memo, with reference number NCS\/ENF\/ABJ\/221\/S.45, and marked \u2018Restricted\u2019, was dated November 1, 2019.
\nThe memo, which was obtained on Sunday, said despite the overwhelming success of the operation, particularly the security and economic benefits to the nation, a few strategic objectives were yet to be achieved.
\nThe memo read in part, \u201cI am directed to inform you that it is observed that despite the overwhelming success of the operation, particularly the security and economic benefits to the nation, a few strategic objectives are yet to be achieved.
\n\u201cAgainst this background, Mr President has approved the extension of the exercise to January 31, 2020.
\n\u201cConsequently, you are requested to convey the development to all personnel for their awareness and guidance.
\n\u201cMeanwhile, allowance for personnel sustenance and fuelling of vehicles for the period of extension will be paid as soon as possible.\u201d
\nThe Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said the extension of the border closure will continue to hurt businesses, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises.
\nIt said this in a statement signed by the Director-General, Mr Muda Yusuf, on Sunday, a copy of which was made available to\u00a0The PUNCH.
\nThe statement said, \u201cThe chamber appreciates the concern of government regarding security and economic sabotage which informed the closure in the first place.
\nAaccording to a report on guardian.ng, this is not the best of times for farmers and agro produce merchants in Ilara, Imeko, Iwoye and neighbouring communities bordering Benin Republic in Imeko Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State.The communities are complaining of seizure of their tomato by the Customs men.
\nAccording to Chairman of the Tomato Farmers\u2019 Association at Ilara, Chief Olusolale Olaleye, the officers\u2019 stopped the farmers from taking their farm produce to the market. Olaleye said: \u201cWe lost 11 buses of tomato, which amounted to N440, 000. They did not resell them to us. They seized\u00a0them from us and sent us away.\u201d
\nJust few weeks after the matter was resolved, the seizure has shifted to other farm produce. Currently, crops like maize, soybean, fruits and other farm produce, including yam flour are rotting away in stores and bans as they have been tagged \u2018contraband\u2019 by customs officials.A maize farmer, Mr. Isiaka Adekanmbi said: \u201cThe Customs men have been hindering us from transporting our farm produce outside the area, despite the fact that we don\u2019t carry rice. Ever since the border closure, they have been intercepting our consignment and taking them to their base in Quarry, Abeokuta.
\nAt times, they open the bags of corn, wheat flour, yam flour and other items to see if we are hiding rice, but they have never found anything incriminating or contraband, after which they\u2019ll release the vehicles.\u201cThey have asked us to meet their Comptroller. We actually found our way to the Comptroller\u2019s office at Idiroko on September 24 and he told us that if we are doing our lawful businesses we don\u2019t have any problem. He actually gave us some phone numbers to call whenever there is any problem from his men, but despite this the harassment has continued.\u201d
\nAdekanmbi said the farmers don\u2019t understand what is happening; even within Imeko, where they reside. \u201cWhenever we go to Customs office they always give excuses that the officers in charge were not around. The story they are telling us now is that there are some of their superior officers at Ilara and Imeko who are monitoring them.
\n\u201cMonitoring you for what? If they are monitoring you, let them stop us, since the comptroller is aware. We are currently running into debt as a result of this development. I have maize in my warehouse that was stored since last year, till now I cannot move it. I have my family in Abeokuta, but I normally come here for business. We are just exercising patience telling our people not to foment trouble but to dialogue first. They have refused to give us passage for our goods.\u201d
\nAdekanmbi told The Guardian that the produce are not imported from neighbouring Benin; but were farmed in Ilara and other neighbouring communities. But Customs authorities think otherwise.
\n\u201cThere is a company that has been begging me to sell maize to them at the rate of N90.00 per tonnage, now due to the restriction of movement, the price has crashed to about N52 to N55. When I heard this, I couldn\u2019t sleep. Now, I have over 300 tonnage of maize all together. With the price crash, I have incurred losses to the tune of over N7.5m, this is for me alone, and I have other colleagues, with higher tonnage is higher than mine.\u201cIt is some of us who are doing lawful businesses that are suffering in the hands of Customs officers, those that are doing unlawful businesses at the border, are still thriving, it is just that we don\u2019t want to indict anybody.\u201d
\nA tomato\/Pepper farmer, Mrs. Bankole, who also confirmed the development said it has brought untold hardship to the economy and residents,, who are predominantly farmers.She noted that tomato farmers have been left off the hook of the Customs men. \u201cWe are no more facing any problem from the Customs officials, we are transporting our wares. But other produce farmers are facing real challenges. This has negatively impacted business in the area. Yam flour sellers took the Custom officials to their stores and depots to see for themselves, but nothing has changed.
\n\u201cThe goods are stranded in the warehouses and some are already getting spoilt. Both the traders and farmers have incurred losses that cannot be quantified. There are big stores that have been locked. You know if the traders cannot sell, farmers too cannot sell. We are afraid because this will negatively affect next year\u2019s farming activities, as so many farmers have been counting their losses.
\nThe NCS Spokesman, Abdullahi Maiwada said he was not in a position to speak on the issue, as it is not exclusive to Ogun State command. He said there is a spokesman for the border closure operation, who doubles as the National Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the NCS. \u201cAnything that pertains to the border operation, I am not competent or authorised to speak on it.\u201d
\nThe National PRO of Customs, Joseph Attah, told The Guardian that Nigerians farmers are not to be stopped by his men, because the whole essence of the border closure is for national security, to encourage farmers and stimulate economic activities.\u201cNigerian farmers are really happy with what we are doing, they are even suggesting that the borders should not be opened anytime soon. This is the first time I am hearing this, honestly. Therefore, we cannot do anything that will counter the reason that led to closure of the borders.\u201d
\nAdditional reports by punchng.com<\/strong>, guardian.ng<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nigeria Customs Service has said January 31, 2020 contained in a leaked memo is not terminal date for the border closure. The clarification by the Customs comes amid a cacophony of complaints by farmers in border communities, cross-border traders, neighbouring countries, and other stakeholders feeling the pinch of the closure, which many say has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":15451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[87,88],"class_list":["post-22216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-news","tag-border","tag-customs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}