The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has dashed growing ex­pectations that the government’s ban on the im­portation of vehicles through the land borders may be lifted.
The NCS declared on Monday that the decision is irreversible.
Stakeholders in the sector and other prominent Nigerians have pleaded with the gov­ernment to either lift the ban or extend the deadline by three months.
But the management of the NCS yesterday said that the policy has come to stay and or­dered its men and officers to go after anyone who attempts to smuggle any vehicle via the land borders across the country.
Two days after the govern­ment began the enforcement of the policy on January 1, 2017, The AUTHORITY reported that thousands of uncleared ve­hicles were trapped at the bor­ders.

The NCS spokesman said that there was no need for the question on the number of ve­hicles impounded because “no room is being given for smug­glers to operate.”
Atta said the existing en­forcement tempo would be maintained while security at the various land borders would be fortified against smugglers.
The AUTHORITY gathered that most of the vehicle evalua­tion points located in the bor­der commands of NCS across the country have been disband­ed and the officers redeployed to beef up border patrols for the effective implementation of the ban.
President Muhammadu Bu­hari had also directed the NCS to stop the importation of rice via land borders.
In a statement issued on De­cember 5, 2016 the NCS said: “The importation of vehicles into Nigeria through the land borders has been banned by the Federal Government. The pro­hibition order covers all new and used vehicles.
“The ban is sequel to a Pres­idential Directive restricting all vehicle imports to Nigerian Sea Ports only. The order takes effect from 1st January, 2017.
“The restriction on impor­tation of vehicles follows that of rice, whose imports have been banned through the land bor­ders since April 2016.
The prohibition order had urged importers of vehicles through the land borders to use the grace period until 31st De­cember, 2016 to clear their ve­hicle imports landed in neigh­bouring ports.
However, many such im­porters had apparently failed to heed the deadline, leading to the trapping of thousands of un­cleared vehicles at the nation’s various key land borders.

Source: http://www.authorityngr.com/2017/01/IMPORTATION-OF-VEHICLES--Ban-on-land-borders-irreversible--Customs-Service

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