I posted this topic on Dec 31, 2015 copied from
https://www.thecable.ng/undercover-investigation-nigerias-customs-of-corruption-bribery-and-forgery

INTRODUCTION TO CORRUPTION

Samson and I shared experiences. First, I told him my plans for my import business, and when I was done, I asked him: “What is the toughest job you have handled in the last six months?”

“Ah!” he exclaimed instantly. “That was in July 2015, when my uncle tried to bring in a block-making machine.”

For the next 30 minutes or thereabouts, he would talk about a series of artificial bottlenecks devised by Customs officials to exploit the average importer.

The landing cost of the machine, excluding the agency and clearing fees, was $25,000. Now, the duty on an industrial-use machine that cannot be fabricated in-country, such as this, is 5 per cent of the landing cost. But once the machine arrived, Customs officials claimed it was undervalued by the importer and it should have cost no less than $54,000. By doubling the landing cost, they were compelling the importer to either pay twice the original fee to the government or pay them a smaller bribe.

“They claimed that someone had bought the same machine for $54,000, and then demanded a bribe from us if we didn’t want to make a fresh payment,” he says. “But that was a big, fat lie, because the landing cost of the machine is exactly $25,000.”

SHIPPING-LINE CORRUPTION

Most shipping lines are owned by foreigners. And since Nigeria is an import-dependent country, importers are left at the mercy of foreign-owned shipping lines. This is what they do:

“The moment the ship bearing your goods berths, the shipping line immediately sends you a mail that you must clear your goods within three days. They expect you to clear within three days; meanwhile, it will typically take four to seven days for your container to be moved from the ship to the block stacking, where all containers are first kept,” Samson explains slowly, pinstakingly.

“On a ship, you may have 1,000 containers on it. So, imagine if your container was among the last 50, it won’t arrive at the block stacking earlier than the fourth day. Yet, your container is already on the ship when your three-day notice starts reading.”

The consequence is that as early as the fourth day, importers are already being charged for demurrage. On a 20-feet container, the importer pays N7,000 daily from the fourth day, while it’s N11,000 daily for a 40-feet container. Samson considers this practice a “very devilish ploy to exploit Nigerians”.

CORRUPTION BY INSPECTION
As Samson explained, the NCS classifies incoming goods into four: green, blue, yellow and red. Green means the goods are well-trusted and therefore require no examination. But goods imported from suspicious countries, such as Indonesia where drug peddling is high, are classified as ‘red’ and requiring physical examination. So the importer not only pays Customs for physically examining the goods, but also the shipping agency for demurrage while awaiting the date of examination.

“Customs may tell you that your container is on red alert and that your physical examination will not take place until another three days, because there are thousands of containers to be examined.

“You will need to pay Customs to come and open your container and examine; they have made this corruption legal. In my own case, the total payment was N60,000, while we paid N24,000 for the physical examination itself. Meanwhile, shipping lines do not charge you day by day; they charge you upfront, minimum of four days.

“Now, when it’s time for your container to be opened, the Customs officers will tell you to open, even though they know that you actually cannot open the container yourself. Therefore, you are forced to engage the services of their labourers. But before the labourers lift a finger, they demand money – and you have to pay them. Meanwhile, this was one of the things you already paid Customs for.”

EVEN NAFDAC, SSS, NDLEA ARE BRIBED FOR ‘LOOKING’
So, what happens when the container has been opened? Representatives of all agencies go in to check, and each of them collects N1,000 “just for looking”. During the inspection of the block-making machine, “representatives of seven agencies” collected the money, according to Samson.

These are Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), State Security Service (SSS), National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA),National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS).

Of course any act of corruption should worry any patriotic Nigerian. But in this case, it is not just the N1,000 but the sheer scale of the sum total of the individual collections. On this day alone, Samson witnessed the inspection of “more than 1,000” containers. By that calculation, each agency went home with an illegal collection of at least N1million.

And it’s hard for importers not to pay the bribe, because failing to pay these officers means that they won’t inspect on the day, which in turn means the importer’s container is moved to another location. When this happens, the importer not only pays a fresh inspection fee, he also has incurred more demurrage charge.

“So, these things are interwoven,” Samson says. “You pay N1,000 bribe to free yourself from maybe N20,000 or N30,000 charge. And if you don’t scale a process, you can’t proceed to the next. You see how complicated it is?”

Aside bribery, there is the danger of a porous system that allows for the illegal importation of arms or other contraband, because once these field officers are paid, they do not inspect; “they just look and tick the papers”.

After this “looking”, photocopies of the ticked Performa Invoice (PI) and the Bill of Lading are taken to the offices of the superiors of these officers, one by one. And when they have signed – most of them also demanding bribe – the documents are taken to the Releasing Officer.

THE RELEASING OFFICER IS LORD

The releasing officer wields enormous powers, especially because he is last in the line. A “no” from him literally nullifies all payments and efforts since arrival of a container. So he makes his money by claiming that the imported goods have been undervalued, and subsequently quoting a fresh, usually-unreasonable figure. He then tells the importer to pay a percentage of the new fee to the government or pay him a lesser fraction, if the goods must be released. Like all other importers, Samson’s uncle fell victim too.

“We bought this machine for $25,000. But Customs already valued it at $54,000, meaning we paid a duty of $2,700 instead of $1,250,” Samson recalls, his face decorated with anger.

“But, all of a sudden, the releasing officer said even $54,000 was an underestimation; he claimed the machine was worth $80,000, and said we had short-changed the Nigerian government.”

Despite all of Samson’s protestations, the releasing officer insisted that 5% of $80,000 had to be paid to the government. And although this calculation itself amounted to $4,000 (N800,000 at the rate of $1 to N200), the officer claimed that by his own calculation, the importer had to pay a whopping N1.5 million to the government. It soon emerged that the Releasing Officer was far from interested in generating revenue for the government.

“He told us we had paid N600,000 out of N1.5million, leaving a deficit of N900,000. He promised to let us go if we paid him one-third of that amount, that is N300,000.

“The tricky part is that if we didn’t pay the N300,000 by 4pm that day, we would not only pay N900,000 the following day, we would miss the following day’s deadline for moving our container, which would mean paying extra terminal and shipping charges. And don’t forget, these charges would not be extended by one day; the extension was for a minimum of four days, and these two costs would be close to N100,000.”

Eventually, the Releasing Officer let them go after collecting – wait for it – a paltry N50,000.

AT THE PORTS, ‘GATE MEN’ ARE POWERFUL PEOPLE
In most establishments, gate keepers are some of the least respected staff, as they are not considered anywhere close to the power brokers. Well, at the Apapa ports, gate keepers are so powerful. And this is why.

The various acts of corruption by officials of Customs and other agencies are all devised to capitalise on the importer’s determination – at times, desperation – to adhere with strict deadlines for movement of goods out of the ports, to avoid paying demurrage. As a result, the releasing officer usually gives his final word a few hours before that deadline.

Now, due to the congestion outside the port gate, it typically takes a truck 12 hours to make its way into the port premises. So, if the men at the gate delay the entry of a truck after the agent has completed the clearing, this deadline can still be missed, which then means all previously-paid bribes have virtually come to nought. Dicey, isn’t it?

Samson says he had to “tip the gate man for him to quickly sign my papers, because if he didn’t on time, I would have missed that deadline”.

That is just one aspect of corruption at the gate. The second happens in front of the gate, where trucks are lined up and each one is in a hurry to be the first to enter. To manage this commotion, Customs engaged a team of soldiers, police, civil defence and navy to organise the truck drivers to maintain a single line.

“When I handed our papers to a truck driver, he told me, ‘Look, this paper expires tomorrow and you’re bringing it at 6pm today. If you really want to move your container, you have to pay us N20,000 for facilitation’. That fee is outside the N70,000 we were to pay to him for moving the container from Apapa to Lagos Island.

“He said to me, ‘We will need to give all these officers something, so that they would pass our own truck and pilot us straight to the gate’. My paper was to expire by 12 noon the following day, so it was either I paid this N20,000 bribe, or I would have to pay fresh terminal and shipping charges that would be roughly N80,000.”

As usual, Samson paid the bribe, and he watched as a soldier collected N5,000 and hopped into the truck to sit by the driver, directing him to head towards the gate. When the driver reached the points that were policed by the navy, police and civil defence officers, he paid them N,5000 each. In a matter of minutes, the N20,000 had vanished and the truck was right inside the port. Yet, this same truck would have been denied entry, despite holding papers clearly stating that the container had to be moved before noon the following day.

What is interesting to note is that Fisayo Soyombo is a household name in investigative journalism. Reading through again I ask these questions:
- Following the damning revelations made in the report, what did the FG do?
- Can we say all or most of the things he found out that was wrong within the Customs have been resolved after about 4 years?
- What approach have the FG adopted so far to stem the corruption issues found in the agency?

I can only hope that the recent revelations as seen in the undercover report of the Prison's system will be given proper attention in addressing the causes rather than polishing the surface.

Larryfest:
There are so many sports administrators and professors in our universities who are over qualified for this post yet the government will settle down for someone who doesn't even have any passion for sports or whatever to run the ministry and we want improvement in our sport circle...

Check our public universities and see how the so-called professors managed them!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yba0rLSkd1I

This guy who did the same thing but took a different approach years ago is in DSS detention.

Broda murrhi...we no see you for court.... in falz voice

You mean to say *Internet never forgets*?

Samanza89:
The worst thing that could ever happen to any human is being on the net for the wrong reasons, because there's a general saying that "the internet never lie", in years to come you'll still see the videos and photos by just searching google. I could still remember "Chidinma the cucumber".

Endeavor to stay off the net for the wrong reasons or it will eventually backfire.

#happyLordsday...

I am in need of the Nokia X5...how can I get it??

Please help find this book.
Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten

Is it still available??

acunon:
Almost new, used for few weeks Sony 32" LED TV


Model Code : KVL-32R402A


Price : 49500K


Condition : Like Brand new with all accessories intact

mctfopt:



Even though it's dishonest to renege on terms of the agreement after payment on a deal, I'd say you got a sweet deal at 3k. I'm assuming you've used the account since March till now. A friend got an account from Grammarly at 23k for a year during their promo. Still, it does not make what the seller did to be the right thing. That is why I always walk away from claims that are too good to be true. No one can sell a Grammarly lifetime account unless of course, the person works for Grammarly. I see a lot of people touting lifetime Grammarly use, it is not like you can hack the account as it is not an offline software, you have to log into their server in real time to access the premium (and even the free) features. I think what the sellers do is to subscribe to Grammarly, then sell the login to as many people as they can to cover the subscription they did. Then some of them deliberately mislead their buyers by claiming its a lifetime thing to get them to commit. That is a low key scam.

I have learnt my lesson. The last time i did use the account was april and not more than twice. I actually did a test run on a random document, and did a project for someone else. Since then, i have been pre-occupied by other things. It was not until recently that someone with a Phd thesis needed help and i felt i could use the software only for me to discover it was basic. I immediately contacted him and after explaining to him, he told me he had since left the grammarly business. I then popped out his promise of a refund if things go south, he blocked my number and since then i havent ben able to reach him. I decided to try out another number which he picked and while explaining things to him, he deliberately cuts the line and blocked that phone number at that instant. Sincerely, if he had told me that he was sorry and that the account he sold is no longer "premium", i wouldn't have thread this route. I can only but marvel at the degree of lie(saying i purchased it for 1k) and also threatening me with a facebook page and a blog which he supposedly runs. Someone accused of stealing and lying and still having the mind to confront you just shows the level of his heartlessness. I will rather buy the monthly subscription from their site and have a rest of mind. Thanks for the advice.

tolajay:
Your email address isn't correct.

Mail isn't delivering.

My mail addy is correct...please resend

ArticleBeast:

I still have your name, number and acct number...We go see who go tire....I have a blog and fb page with 123k follower by the time I post your pic and details as a thief...I sold you grammarly since March which you tested but mumu say Lifetime, when I no know weda I go live for a 100yrs. You are calling me thief in December...I go deal with you online na you go beg to refund me 1k wey you take buy am. Since you wan die ontop 1k wey no reach to carry ashewo.

You know what...post whatever you want to...i have my proofs...the chat we had...the money(3k) i transferred to you and others. You will also show them your own proofs too. By the time it becomes a criminal case at the DSS, we shall be releasing bank statements and the whatsapp chats...the internet never forgets. You just displayed your stupidity by telling what you will do. and this would be evidence also...so go ahead...i am waiting...i have nothing to hide...and i did no wrong by calling you out...cos you reneged on your promise...

and your terms and conditions were You are a coward...why did you block my number?? and you know what...perdition awaits you...i guess you used the money to cure your lust for greed and stealing...cos at this rate you are going, you will be hounded and hunted like a rat when caught in the act...

ArticleBeast:

24th of March at least he tried na. How much is the monthly charge for grammarly. I gave you my terms and conditions but you didn't keep to it. If you like post my number and details on a billboard on Oshodi, you are wasting your time.

Should I send you SARS or Efcc number...? Efulefu

My last reply to you since you are a dumb pained fellow.

Another common thief who claimed to have life grammarly account sold to me around 24th March.

His previous nairaland account : johnniewalker
His nairaland account now: ArticleBeast

This boy deliberately blocked my number when i raised the issue.
I used another number to call him tonight, he picked and after he heard my voice, he cuts the line and i havent been able to get him

His name is Agor Elijah
GTBank account: 0116146185

His phone number is: 09082013387

Agor, a criminal like you can only run...you cannot hide....
Please take note...

Please i need it asap...oladapoonanuga@gmail.com

walexydo:
which one is false info , are u trying to say osun is just owing january salary,what about d arrears of all d half salary aregbe has been paying since july 2015 wch he made d promise to pay from April this year.may be u ar not living in Osun state . The info about Osun is very correct unless if u don't want to say the truth .

How does this amount to 28 months? You may also note that primary school teachers who are in grade 7 and below receive full payment and as such are not owed. This however does not disprove the fact that they were not owed(level 8 and above). Pensioners are also owed and has been receiving half salary.

Toay:
Why are they going to court when the full video is right there on YouTube

The YouTube video may not be admissible in court because anyone could claim responsibility for posting such and channels Tv may deny that content. A proper way is to get channels Tv admit in writing that they posted the video.

Omudia11:
I'm neither happy nor sad about man's inability to design a cell. It only shows that God is light years ahead of even the brightest of human minds.

Per the bolded, how exactly was our education slave oriented? Cut white people some slack. The slave masters were not the colonialists who came to Nigeria.
Slave trade was over 400 years ago.When did the colonialists and missionaries come? Why do we keep blaming all our misfortunes on the white man? Do you really think if they wanted us to continue being in the dark ages they would introduce western education, or religion or even teach us their own language?

When did the Europeans leaves Nigeria? Almost a century ago and yet we keep blaming all our misfortunes on them. Are they the reason why our educational sector crumbled shortly after they left? Your say our education was slave oriented. Our very own Nigerians who went to foreign schools, what tangible impact have they made in Nigeria after studies there?

Of Course...God is ahead..agreed. But you would agree with me that man's ability to do the unthinkable and ability to push beyond limits has never been in doubt. I wonder what could have been the response of those who lived during Egypt civilization to the technologies of today. It would have been "unbelievable". Concerning "our education", while i agree with you that we could have surpassed that "white-man's education" talk, we cannot still exonerate them from the mess we have found ourselves in. The education they brought to us was to make us "civil servants" who must be seen to obey orders and work according to some set down rules and procedures. No questioning the conventions, no innovation, indigenous language were seen as vernaculars...etc. However, we know better. We need to come together to brainstorm on how develop and improve our science(what we know as black science) and export. Sorry for digressing. Thanks for the discussion..quite educative.

DrGoodmanFather:


Chairman. You need to know more than SPSS.
Data Analyst does not only work in Research environment, they are needed in all environments and the job is the future.
Here in the US, you must know Python or R. Know Excel.

Also, you master one or two software like Power Bi , Tableau and you are guaranteed $75k plus a year.

Thanks for this. Is it compulsory to get at least a degree in statistics in order to qualify for the job you mentioned earlier?

Omudia11:
You're even going too far. They have not been able to create a cell.

Are you happy they are yet to or cannot make the human cell? Our Education which was slave oriented set limits on the way we think. Our religious instructors further compounded it. It must however be noted that inventions like these are steps towards solving the human problem from curing diseases to other super inventions.

muyibaba222:


That happened because of the controversies surrounding the death of Senator Isiaka Adeleke then.

One of the reasons...There are other reasons that counted for the loss. If you had had the privilege of monitoring the build up to the senatorial elections, you would have understood better. You said "controversy" but i will like to inform you that "several" of those controversies are springing up lately and the opposition is making a "point" out of it. Brother..its the perception of the people that would play here..which unfortunately is not in favour of Ogbeni at the moment. Ask teachers, lecturers, civil servants and market women..

muyibaba222:


You Need to understand that governance goes beyond payment of salaries. The fact that he couldn't pay salaries does not mean he has performed less in other areas.
Osun election is here, wait and see if anybody would beat his candidate.

The Osun west senatorial election concluded few months ago disproves your assertion. Out of the 10 LGAs, Ogbeni's candidate won just one. It's about perception and not the reality..

OnePunchMan:


Hello sir,

We only take orders on amazon USA. Kindly check for a similar link on amazon USA so we can work with that..

Its alright..Please check this. https://www.amazon.com/EEEKit-Precision-Screwdriver-Maintenance-Electronic/dp/B0123DAZWO/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1514558749&sr=8-4&keywords=computer+repair+and+maintenance+kit

Please do me the quote for shipping and delivery of this item to Osogbo, Osun State. Thanks.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Piece-Computer-Repair-Tool-Kit/dp/B0033MHUAA

DAMAGE BEYOND BELIEF

By its own admission, NCS has two major functions: the “core” and “others”. The core functions, which are just two, are “collection of revenue i.e. import and excise duties and accounting for same”, and “prevention and suppression of smuggling”.

But has the service truly been collecting “revenues”? Certainly not. It has been more of “bribe” collection than “revenue” collection. “Accounting” for revenue collection is also out of question. Although, over the last few years, the service has regularly declared a figure in the realm of N1trillion as annual revenue generation, there are no documents in public domain by which the service can be held to account. That may soon change, though, since President Muhammadu Buhari recently ordered the probe of all revenue-generating agencies, including Customs, from 2012 to 2015.

Has Customs been preventing and suppressing smuggling? Surely not to the extent that it can, because when inspection officers only “look” at a container, collect N1,000 and move on to the next container, there can’t be watertight blockade against the smuggling of illicit goods or even arms into the country.

Shortly after leaving office as comptroller-general of Customs in August 2015, Dikko Abdullahi boasted boasted that the service, which was generating a monthly revenue of N29billion before his assumption of office, was realising “between N90billion and N100billion on a monthly basis” by his departure. Hats off to Abdullahi for the upgrade, but far from impressive – because, at the very least, Abdullahi’s Customs should have been declaring nothing short of N500billion to N1trillion monthly, seeing how Customs officers deprived the government of N1million in exchange for a bribe of N300,000, or N900,000 for a measly N50,000 bribe.

As revealed by the experiences narrated in this report, the business of importation and clearing, as it currently runs, is a huge turnoff for any serious or incorruptible businessman.

RIDDING CUSTOMS OF CORRUPTION
There is little doubt that Hameed Ali, a retired colonel, is desperate to clean up the mess that is the NCS. So “incorruptible” is Ali that Buhari nearly named him chairman of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – until he had a last-minute about-face – instead appointing the Kaduna state former military governor as CG of Customs.

And since assuming office, Ali has talked tough. In one of his first public appearances, he said that corrupt Customs officer “will not go scot-free”. A month later, he vowed to double the minimum punishment for corruption in the agency, saying: “The minimum jail term for corrupt officers is five years, but I will make sure that any officer found to be corrupt gets the maximum jail term of 10 years.”

It must be said that it hasn’t been all talk. Within two months of his reign, all five deputy comptrollers-general of the service tendered their resignation, to herald his restructuring plan. This was soon followed by the “immediate retirement” of 40 senior officers. With the same period, he cancelled the practice of permanent posting of officers to unit commands and departments, saying anyone who had spent up to three years in a unit should expect posting. Then he followed this up by promising to meet the president to discuss improved remuneration for Customs personnel. Clearly, Ali has the will that was lacking (or maybe not evident) in previous regimes.

But my experience with this undercover investigation has shown that Ali’s strategies have so far omitted the factor most crucial to sanitising the agency: elimination of human contact with importers/agents. And the best way to achieve this was long prescribed by the president under whose watch corruption perhaps flourished most in the country: Goodluck Jonathan.

Speaking in March at a campaign rally in Enugu ahead of a presidential election he would go on to lose, Jonathan had censured his opponent, Buhari, and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), for constantly haranguing and pillorying him for lacking the will to fight corruption. He said: “You don’t fight corruption with individuals or will, you fight it with institutions, with technology.”

Ali must never mind that Jonathan didn’t practise what he preached; he must retrieve the message and forget the messenger. Without a technological revolution, Ali’s will to rid Customs of corruption will be futile. The releasing officer who demanded for N300,000 wouldn’t do it if the applicant submitted his endorsed documents online, and the approval process was entirely electronic, with superior officers having online access to his dealings. The representatives of seven agencies who collected N1,000,000 per ‘looked’ contained would have been handicapped if all containers were screened by scanning devices rather than by physical examination. Of course, NCS has a website with which it interfaces with importers; but bar the filling of the ‘Form M’ and a few other pre-shipping procedures, the bulk of the work, particularly after arrival of goods, takes place physically. And this wholesale technological migration does not have to be accompanied by loss of jobs, as people only need to be made to do online, the same tasks they did offline.

In the end, fighting corruption in the NCS is not exactly about sacking the you-will-survive-I-will-survive officer or the N500-bribe-taking soldier, or the your-machine-is-undervalued bribe-seeking releasing officer. It is purely about enthroning a custom of institutional probity, about instituting a corruption-intolerant SYSTEM rather sticking with the medicine-after-death approach of sacking corrupt officers.

by 'Fisayo Soyombo
December 31
https://www.thecable.ng/undercover-investigation-nigerias-customs-of-corruption-bribery-and-forgery


INTRODUCTION TO CORRUPTION

Samson and I shared experiences. First, I told him my plans for my import business, and when I was done, I asked him: “What is the toughest job you have handled in the last six months?”

“Ah!” he exclaimed instantly. “That was in July 2015, when my uncle tried to bring in a block-making machine.”

For the next 30 minutes or thereabouts, he would talk about a series of artificial bottlenecks devised by Customs officials to exploit the average importer.

The landing cost of the machine, excluding the agency and clearing fees, was $25,000. Now, the duty on an industrial-use machine that cannot be fabricated in-country, such as this, is 5 per cent of the landing cost. But once the machine arrived, Customs officials claimed it was undervalued by the importer and it should have cost no less than $54,000. By doubling the landing cost, they were compelling the importer to either pay twice the original fee to the government or pay them a smaller bribe.

“They claimed that someone had bought the same machine for $54,000, and then demanded a bribe from us if we didn’t want to make a fresh payment,” he says. “But that was a big, fat lie, because the landing cost of the machine is exactly $25,000.”

SHIPPING-LINE CORRUPTION

Most shipping lines are owned by foreigners. And since Nigeria is an import-dependent country, importers are left at the mercy of foreign-owned shipping lines. This is what they do:

“The moment the ship bearing your goods berths, the shipping line immediately sends you a mail that you must clear your goods within three days. They expect you to clear within three days; meanwhile, it will typically take four to seven days for your container to be moved from the ship to the block stacking, where all containers are first kept,” Samson explains slowly, pinstakingly.

“On a ship, you may have 1,000 containers on it. So, imagine if your container was among the last 50, it won’t arrive at the block stacking earlier than the fourth day. Yet, your container is already on the ship when your three-day notice starts reading.”

The consequence is that as early as the fourth day, importers are already being charged for demurrage. On a 20-feet container, the importer pays N7,000 daily from the fourth day, while it’s N11,000 daily for a 40-feet container. Samson considers this practice a “very devilish ploy to exploit Nigerians”.

CORRUPTION BY INSPECTION
As Samson explained, the NCS classifies incoming goods into four: green, blue, yellow and red. Green means the goods are well-trusted and therefore require no examination. But goods imported from suspicious countries, such as Indonesia where drug peddling is high, are classified as ‘red’ and requiring physical examination. So the importer not only pays Customs for physically examining the goods, but also the shipping agency for demurrage while awaiting the date of examination.

“Customs may tell you that your container is on red alert and that your physical examination will not take place until another three days, because there are thousands of containers to be examined.

“You will need to pay Customs to come and open your container and examine; they have made this corruption legal. In my own case, the total payment was N60,000, while we paid N24,000 for the physical examination itself. Meanwhile, shipping lines do not charge you day by day; they charge you upfront, minimum of four days.

“Now, when it’s time for your container to be opened, the Customs officers will tell you to open, even though they know that you actually cannot open the container yourself. Therefore, you are forced to engage the services of their labourers. But before the labourers lift a finger, they demand money – and you have to pay them. Meanwhile, this was one of the things you already paid Customs for.”

EVEN NAFDAC, SSS, NDLEA ARE BRIBED FOR ‘LOOKING’
So, what happens when the container has been opened? Representatives of all agencies go in to check, and each of them collects N1,000 “just for looking”. During the inspection of the block-making machine, “representatives of seven agencies” collected the money, according to Samson.

These are Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), State Security Service (SSS), National Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA),National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS).

Of course any act of corruption should worry any patriotic Nigerian. But in this case, it is not just the N1,000 but the sheer scale of the sum total of the individual collections. On this day alone, Samson witnessed the inspection of “more than 1,000” containers. By that calculation, each agency went home with an illegal collection of at least N1million.

And it’s hard for importers not to pay the bribe, because failing to pay these officers means that they won’t inspect on the day, which in turn means the importer’s container is moved to another location. When this happens, the importer not only pays a fresh inspection fee, he also has incurred more demurrage charge.

“So, these things are interwoven,” Samson says. “You pay N1,000 bribe to free yourself from maybe N20,000 or N30,000 charge. And if you don’t scale a process, you can’t proceed to the next. You see how complicated it is?”

Aside bribery, there is the danger of a porous system that allows for the illegal importation of arms or other contraband, because once these field officers are paid, they do not inspect; “they just look and tick the papers”.

After this “looking”, photocopies of the ticked Performa Invoice (PI) and the Bill of Lading are taken to the offices of the superiors of these officers, one by one. And when they have signed – most of them also demanding bribe – the documents are taken to the Releasing Officer.

THE RELEASING OFFICER IS LORD

The releasing officer wields enormous powers, especially because he is last in the line. A “no” from him literally nullifies all payments and efforts since arrival of a container. So he makes his money by claiming that the imported goods have been undervalued, and subsequently quoting a fresh, usually-unreasonable figure. He then tells the importer to pay a percentage of the new fee to the government or pay him a lesser fraction, if the goods must be released. Like all other importers, Samson’s uncle fell victim too.

“We bought this machine for $25,000. But Customs already valued it at $54,000, meaning we paid a duty of $2,700 instead of $1,250,” Samson recalls, his face decorated with anger.

“But, all of a sudden, the releasing officer said even $54,000 was an underestimation; he claimed the machine was worth $80,000, and said we had short-changed the Nigerian government.”

Despite all of Samson’s protestations, the releasing officer insisted that 5% of $80,000 had to be paid to the government. And although this calculation itself amounted to $4,000 (N800,000 at the rate of $1 to N200), the officer claimed that by his own calculation, the importer had to pay a whopping N1.5 million to the government. It soon emerged that the Releasing Officer was far from interested in generating revenue for the government.

“He told us we had paid N600,000 out of N1.5million, leaving a deficit of N900,000. He promised to let us go if we paid him one-third of that amount, that is N300,000.

“The tricky part is that if we didn’t pay the N300,000 by 4pm that day, we would not only pay N900,000 the following day, we would miss the following day’s deadline for moving our container, which would mean paying extra terminal and shipping charges. And don’t forget, these charges would not be extended by one day; the extension was for a minimum of four days, and these two costs would be close to N100,000.”

Eventually, the Releasing Officer let them go after collecting – wait for it – a paltry N50,000.

AT THE PORTS, ‘GATE MEN’ ARE POWERFUL PEOPLE
In most establishments, gate keepers are some of the least respected staff, as they are not considered anywhere close to the power brokers. Well, at the Apapa ports, gate keepers are so powerful. And this is why.

The various acts of corruption by officials of Customs and other agencies are all devised to capitalise on the importer’s determination – at times, desperation – to adhere with strict deadlines for movement of goods out of the ports, to avoid paying demurrage. As a result, the releasing officer usually gives his final word a few hours before that deadline.

Now, due to the congestion outside the port gate, it typically takes a truck 12 hours to make its way into the port premises. So, if the men at the gate delay the entry of a truck after the agent has completed the clearing, this deadline can still be missed, which then means all previously-paid bribes have virtually come to nought. Dicey, isn’t it?

Samson says he had to “tip the gate man for him to quickly sign my papers, because if he didn’t on time, I would have missed that deadline”.

That is just one aspect of corruption at the gate. The second happens in front of the gate, where trucks are lined up and each one is in a hurry to be the first to enter. To manage this commotion, Customs engaged a team of soldiers, police, civil defence and navy to organise the truck drivers to maintain a single line.

“When I handed our papers to a truck driver, he told me, ‘Look, this paper expires tomorrow and you’re bringing it at 6pm today. If you really want to move your container, you have to pay us N20,000 for facilitation’. That fee is outside the N70,000 we were to pay to him for moving the container from Apapa to Lagos Island.

“He said to me, ‘We will need to give all these officers something, so that they would pass our own truck and pilot us straight to the gate’. My paper was to expire by 12 noon the following day, so it was either I paid this N20,000 bribe, or I would have to pay fresh terminal and shipping charges that would be roughly N80,000.”

As usual, Samson paid the bribe, and he watched as a soldier collected N5,000 and hopped into the truck to sit by the driver, directing him to head towards the gate. When the driver reached the points that were policed by the navy, police and civil defence officers, he paid them N,5000 each. In a matter of minutes, the N20,000 had vanished and the truck was right inside the port. Yet, this same truck would have been denied entry, despite holding papers clearly stating that the container had to be moved before noon the following day.

WHO SAYS THE AGENTS ARE CLEAN, ANYWAY?
It was very easy for all the agents to expose acts of corruption by Customs and other agencies. After noticing that they evaded their own financial dealings with importers, I contacted Ayodele Adebambo, a businessman who had little problem fixing an appointment for his Ikorodu office on Monday, December 21, to discuss his encounters with clearing agents and how they were corruptly enriching themselves at the expense of importers.

One of such shady moves is in collusion with a banker, who provides the agent with fake documentation with which to swindle the importer.

“First time I experienced it, I was inside a bank and an agent brought a bank draft to the counter. I noticed that the guy was fidgety, and that the banker returned a draft that was separate from the one he collected. So I asked questions,” Adebambo says.

This is how it happens. Importers usually pay rent to use containers; it is N250,000 for 20-feet containers and N400,00 for 40-feet. If the container is returned to the port in good condition, after movement of goods from the port to destination, the rent is refunded to the importer through his agent. This return is never made in cash, but in bank draft. However, for every extra day the container stays on the site, the importer suffers daily deduction from that rent, because the expectation is that the container should be returned within 24 hours.
“The agents know how to bargain for waivers even when the importer is due for deduction. So when a clearing agent collects, say, a bank draft of N400,000 in the name of the importer, he takes it to an agent who specialises in bank-draft fraud,” he explains further.

“These ‘agents of draft’, as they are called, are connected with bankers. The draft agent enters the bank and locates his insider. They move the money to a particular account, and when the money reflects in that account, they do a fresh draft from the receiver’s account. By that time, the banker would have deducted a percentage of the N400,000, say N60,000. So the banker and draft agent both share the N60,000.

“The clearing agent may then say he actually wants to present N200,000 to the importer, so another draft will be generated, and the clearing agent will pocket N140,000. It is this bank draft of N200,00 that they will now re-present to the importer.

“Let’s assume the banker changes 10 drafts in a day, and he makes N15,000, then he goes home with N150,000. That is just for one day. And do not forget, the business of importation is heavy in Nigeria, so these shady deals are always available every day. If he does that five times a week, he will be making approximately N3m a month, which is multiple times his salary.”

NOT JUST FRAUD, BUT FORGERY AS WELL
After successfully convincing Samson that I would make him my agent from January when I intended to begin importation, he gladly sent me a Performa Invoice (PI), which is the first document an agent works with before the onset of shipping. With this PI, I visited Nnewi Building on Wednesday December 23. If these agents went as far as forging bank drafts, some other forms of forgery must be going on, surely.

When I strolled into the building at a few minutes before 8am, I was one of the earliest arrivals. Three shops were open at the time: one manned by a fair, young lady donning a clingy top and a salaciously-short skirt; the second by another fair occupant, this time a man, elderly, slow-speaking and modest in appearance; and one more by a young man whom I didn’t see but whose voice I only heard as he conversed loudly with a “client” of his on the phone.

I decided my destination in split seconds. I didn’t need the distraction of a showy lady, and I gave a thumbs down to the young man’s ebullience. I was interested in the experience of “Andy”, as he would later introduce himself – or “Pa Andy” – as I continued drumming to myself. “What do you want, my son?” the old man asks.

“Insurance for this goods, sir. Insurance plus bill of lading.”

“Make I see your PI,” he asks, before quickly adding, “Which bank you wan use?”

I still hadn’t answered when he continued: “Me I no fit do ‘bill lading’ o; person wey dey do am never come. But this insurance go cost you N300.”

I waited outside while Pa Andy recoiled in. He reappeared after some 10 minutes and handed a paper to me – a duly stamped and signed ‘original’ marine certificate from Alliance and General Insurance Company Limited, which indicated that I had paid N18,575.70! Meanwhile, I had only paidPa Andy 1.61% of that figure!

A DARING TRIP TO THE STRONGHOLD OF CORRUPTION
In one final push for a live experience of all I had heard from clearing agents, importers and security agents over the last eight days, I arrived Apapa port at about 9am on Thursday December 24, with the intention forcing my way to the inspection ground. It was the last gentleman’s agreement I had with Samson before I could officially designate him my clearing agent from January 2016: I needed to experience the payment of bribes to officials at the inspection centre so that when he finally became my agent and he had to demand such payments from me, I wouldn’t hastily conclude that he was trying to con me.

Therefore, I arrived the port gate dressed like a clearing agent, spotting a blue Ralph Lauren shirt and a pair of blue jeans on a pair of black snickers. How wrong was I think to think I was going to stroll in as I did exactly one week before!

“Yes, where is your port pass?” one of the three uniformed men manning the gate queries me. Once the first soldier launched that attack, the NPA and police officers with him followed suit.

“Oga, tok nah. I say wia ur port pass?” one of the other two screams at me.

“Errrmm… I don’t have,” I stammer.

“You go settle us be that,” the soldier retorts. “Oya, oya; no waste our time.”

I hand him a N500 note, and he passes me in.

Up next was the cabin side occupied by mufti-wearing Customs officers. A week ago, I sat among them for over an hour, and none of them dared question me. This time, one barked out the moment he sighted me: “Come here! Who are you and who authorised you to enter?”

Samson had already mentioned me to his boss as a potential customer who needed to go in with him, so at the mention of Samson’s boss – a popular figure among the officers – I was cleared to enter.

For the next two hours, I would pass time beside one of the food vendors close to ‘Customs Office’, in anticipation of the examination of a container Samson was clearing. Samson had told me it would hold at 11am, but 11am became 12noon, noon became 1pm, and 1pm extended to 2pm. So long the inspection ground was the place where the actual sharing of money to seven recognised government agencies took place, no wait could ever be too long. I was beginning to wonder if I had been scammed when Samson appeared out of the blue to fetch me, and we both sprang into a waiting bus that conveyed a total of 18 clearing agents to the inspection ground. As I soon found out, the bus was one of a few that worked in shuttles, fetching agents from the Customs Office to and from the inspection ground.

Security here was tighter than I anticipated. A harmless-looking civil defence officer manned the gate, fussily checking the agents’ ID cards and port passes to be sure that only authorised people entered. After renting a reflective vest (worn by all agents) for N100 from a nearby seller, I advanced towards the gate with container papers handed over to me by Samson, but I was turned back. Two bellicose men who carried themselves like the officer’s superiors stepped in to find out what the matter was; and when they found out I had no port pass, they drove me away.

“No ID card/port pass, no entry,” one shouted. “You have no business here; just go.”

I pulled the N500 trick that worked with the soldier, but it failed. When I stepped it up to N5,000 and they still didn’t budge, I knew I had reached my wits end. But I reminded myself that my job was still unfinished: If I can’t enter, I must find out the real reason why I can’t! Is it to protect the goods or to protect their pockets?

I pulled out my phone, plugged my headset and began listening to and loudly humming the lyrics of Carlos Santana/Music’s Nothing At All. I turned off the volume but continued humming and whistling to feign the impression that I was dead to the noise around me. It worked!

“Who knows who he is?” one of the two menacing men says. “We have to be careful. See what happened last week. Who would have believed that Wale would be the one to go about running his mouth about our ‘runs’?”

UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION: Nigeria’s ‘Customs of corruption, bribery and forgery’

Read more at: https://www.thecable.ng/undercover-investigation-nigerias-customs-of-corruption-bribery-and-forgery

For nine straight working days in December, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, editor of TheCable, disguised his appearance – first as a hungry, hapless job seeker; later as a trainee clearing agent; and finally as an intending importer of cars, computers and Italian suits and shoes – to penetrate into the importing and clearing ring at the Nigeria Customs Service. Presented in this comprehensive reporter’s diary, his findings reveal series of sharp practices involving men of the service, other border and security agencies, the clearing agents, and banks – leading to massive short-changing of government revenue. They also underline the scale of work required to purify an agency that is arguably the armpit of corruption in the most populous black nation.

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Sourced from two different chapters and verses (Mark 10:25 and Matthew 19:24) in the Christians’ holy book, the Bible, this quotation is one of the most popular pastoral tools for summarizing the vanity of wealth – and life.

But nothing better captures the secrecy shrouding business activities at the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) than a parody of this saying: it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for anyone to enter into the Apapa premises of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Before setting out for Apapa, which houses the largest and busiest seaport in Nigeria, and is one of the most horrendous traffic-gridlock zones in the densely populated city of Lagos, I had been warned by everyone who knew something about the ports that I would be unable to enter.

Still, on Monday, December 14, 2015, I arrived Apapa in the company of my one-day guide who knew the area so well and graciously offered to help with navigating opening-day impediments. Much of the first day’s work was to revolve round securing temporary accommodation in Apapa pending the conclusion of the assignment – this didn’t happen, by the way – and general surveying operations around the port.

After the failed attempt to secure accommodation, my guide and I proceeded to the Apapa ports, where we were to study the inflow and outflow of articulated vehicles, the conduct of uniformed men, the transactional conversations of clearing agents and the touting drive of document forgers. In three hours, we were done with the last three, and it was time to move closer to the port entrance to get a closer picture of business. Although we had been informed that this was a period of low business, we counted the entry of at least five articulated vehicles in a minute, translating to an estimated average of 300 vehicles in an hour! We were standing some 50metres off the gate and had barely been there for five minutes when a policeman walked westward towards our direction.

“Yes, what are you doing here?” he says in a brusque, brisk tone. “What exactly do you want”?

“We’re waiting for a phone call, sir,” I reply.

“Move over there,” he barks. “This is a restricted zone.”

Our work was over for the day, apparently; but as we retreated, I looked out for the badge on his uniform. Odion Ohiro, it read.

I returned the following day – Tuesday, December 15, 2015 – as a jobless, poverty-stricken undergraduate seeking apprenticeship with a clearing agent. Clad in a scruffy shirt, faded jeans and a run-down pair of sandals to match, I arrived Nnewi Building (dominated by agents) at exactly 6:17am, settled into an irregular pavement just in front of First City Monumental Bank, and brought out the December edition of Azubuike Ishiekwene’s magazine, The Interview, which I not only read but also used to shield my face as I tracked agents, who soon began to arrive. For more than five hours, I observed the influx of people – some entering empty-handed and exiting with sheets of printed paper, others coming in with a few sheets and leaving with stashes of documents. This is the ‘Oluwole’ of Apapa – Oluwole being the notorious Lagos Island location where there is hardly a document that cannot be forged, from the University of Ibadan’s transcript to the University of Toronto’s certificate.

A little after midday, I climbed the first floor of the main building, also housing a FirstBank branch, and entered into a shack-size office. I was welcomed by the inquisitive, how-may-we-help-you-look of a middle-aged man and a young lady, whose demeanour immediately gave out as boss and apprentice, respectively.

“Please sah, I need your help,” I start, stooping by the man, a dark, well-built frame who spoke in measured tones. “I am jobless years after graduating from university; and rather than wait for a job that seems not to be coming, I have come here to learn how to become a clearing agent. I will learn very fast if you would take me on as an apprentice, sah.”

It was difficult for anyone to disbelieve me. I had deliberately left my hair overgrown and uncombed, and my beards unshaved; it was past noon and I had neither had a bath nor a meal. Jude ran a quick, furtive glance over me and must have concluded that I looked markedly hungry and shabby, and I truly needed a job.

“What is your name?” he asks softly, his voice rich in sympathy.

“Tunde,” I reply. “Babatunde.”

“See, nobody will take you in to learn this job,” he begins slowly, his compassionate gaze momentarily settling on my shattered pair of slippers. “You are Tunde – not Ibrahim or Obinna. You are Yoruba; meanwhile, this job is controlled by Igbos. Igbo men will rather trust a fellow Igbo man, or an Hausa; they will think you will run away with their money. So, being a stranger, the only way for you to become a clearing agent is to first take a lowly job, like that of a photocopier operator, then you can build trust over some months.”

Jude explained that even the option of operating a photocopying machine would not be available until the turn of the year. He then motioned his subordinate to fetch a piece of paper, on which he scribbled: 08068199143.

“No need to call me at all; just flash me and I will save your number, then I will activate my search antennae,” he says. “I’ll see if I can get you an opportunity with which you can make like N500 daily, so you can at least feed yourself from your work. But for now, no clearing agent can take you in.”

Those harmless words pierced my heart like a dagger. Although everything about me up to that point was fabricated, it was the first time I radiated a genuine emotion. I was truly sad. As I exited Jude’s office and descended the stairs of the first structure in Nnewi Building, I knew that my first strategy for experiencing, firsthand, corruption at Customs had just been scuppered. It was a sad, lonely, dreary trip home.

I tossed from end to end in my sleep that night, and woke up on Wednesday grabbing my phone and making frantic calls to contacts who could link me with agents or Customs officers, as a jobless youth willing to work with them as an apprentice. Within two hours, I had a list of three Customs officers and five clearing agents. But by 6pm, all eight of them had turned down my request.

By 9pm when the telephone number of one more agent came in, my personality had evolved. I had then become the in-country representative of a friend who would start importing from January 2016. My friend had the capital but both of us were greenhorns. All I needed was to convince him that I had learnt the workings of importing and clearing, and he would release the funds. I assured my listener that the agent who agreed to teach me the rudiments of the trade would certainly be the one to supervise the clearing.

“Let’s see on Friday,” Paul says with unmistakable excitement. “Call me when you get to Nnewi Building.”

TechRev:
At least you were armed with your AK47 or what ever. What of the unarmed peaceful protesters that your comrades killed in onitsha PH??

Its left for God to forgive but who arranges the meeting??

Vladimir Putin

Good evening boss. I wont mind. My mail addy is oladapoonanuga@gmail.com

Can you please help bid for these as it remains approx an hour?? What would be the price to get to osogbo. Thanks.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iPad-3rd-Generation-16GB-Wi-Fi-9-7in-Black-/141728626087?hash=item20ffaf35a7

Justiceotuya:

ok guy. I just sent you a mail here oladapoonanuga@gmail.com

..More courses has been uploaded...http://www.uilpgportal.unilorin.edu.ng/avail_prog.php. This includes the PGDCS...You may proceed with your application..

Justiceotuya:
i am confused. how do ia apply for PGD program? can i get a number of one of the computer guys at unilorin?

Could you post your number so i could call call you? I am in the same dilemma as you are(prospective PGDCS student). PGD computer science was not listed in the advert so also in the"list of available programmes". i decided to call a friend to help in finding out if PGD computer science would not be offered this year. He met with the HOD computer science who confirmed that they would be admitting this year. My friend also complained to him of not seeing the course listed, but he insisted that he would see to it that (PGDCS) is included in their site and he also encouraged me to keep checking the site from time to time. You can as well confirm. Thanks.