Nigeria Customs shut down Car Dealers across Lagos
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in a major crackdown on Sunday, shut down some car marts suspected to be involved in car smuggling through the Seme and Idiroko land borders.
This is a continuation of the war on smuggling by the federal agency in line with the closure of land borders across the country ordered by the presidency.
It was gathered that members of the Comptroller General of the service’s strike force and officers attached to the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’, Ikeja stormed the popular Berger along Apapa-Oshodi Express Road and other major car dealers’ premises across Lagos in search of smuggled vehicles and subsequently shut down the car marts until further notice.
It was learnt that the car marts were shut down on the orders of the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali, for allegedly retailing smuggled vehicles in the shops.
It was also reported that car dealers who are not involved in selling smuggled cars were also shutdown but the report was , however, denied by the Customs Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah.
He said, ” Yes a number of car marts were shutdown based on credible information that there were smuggled vehicles in these car marts, but the sealing is just temporary. As from this week, we will assess the situation and advise them accordingly as to what they should do.”
Asked how many dealers were shutdown, he said, “As of now I don’t have the numbers but those not involved in any bad business were not shutdown. But I can confirm that some numbers have been shutdown. Within the week, customs will take a look at the records of each vehicle in these car marts and appropriate actions will be taken.
Attah also confirmed that no arrested were made.
“The target is not really to bring any unnecessary hardship to any individual, the idea is to see the possibility of either seizure or recovery of revenue for such vehicles,” he added.
When contacted, the managing director of one of the companies affected said, “All car dealers in Lagos were shutdown, Affordable Cars Limited, Carlink Limited, InehmicAutos, Globe Motors, COSCHARIS and Skymit Motors, Arrowhead Motors, Wonder Wheels Motors, Auto Point Motors and any name that you can think of were all shutdown. Even Stallion Motors was affected. The only one I cannot confirm is Toyota Nigeria Limited or Elizade Motors.
“They came and put a sticker, sealed off the place and said come to FOU in Ikeja. That was all. No information or notices. It was not as if they came and found smuggled cars in our premises. They didn’t even ask for anything. Globe Motors and Inehmic were the first place they went to around 7a.m. They came to my place in the evening. One will expect that they will at least ask for documents but nothing, they just sealed off the place,” he added.
