Customs Collects N903bn Revenue For 2015 – Hameed Ali, CG, CUSTOMS

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)
collected a total of N903 billion in 2015
out of a target of N954 billion,
comptroller-general of the Service Col.
Hameed Ali Rtd, has said.

Ali who stated this while fielding
questions from journalists after the
decoration of newly promoted senior
officers of the Service in Abuja, noted
that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
policy on the importation of 41 items
denied the Customs revenue collection to
the tune of N240 billion in 2015.

The CGC yesterday decorated six newly
promoted Deputy Comptrollers General
and eight Assistant Comptrollers General.
He said, “If we had added that to what
we have generated it would have
surpassed what we have, so that is the
down side of why we were not able to
meet the target in 2015.”

Ali who expressed the hope that the
Service will surpass its target for 2016 in
view of the tools already put in place by
the management, added, “I hope also
that government will once again look at
those policies and see how they can be
fine-tuned.”

As part of efforts to meeting the 2016
target, the CGC said he has gone round
the various Commands where he urged
officers to work harder as well as help
the agency clear the correct the bad
impression the public has about it.

The newly decorated officers include
DCGs Suleiman Ibrahim Idris, Grace
Adeyemo, Dan Ugo, Paul Ukaigwe,
Abubakar Umar and Austen Warikoru.
The ACGs include Sanusi Umar, Aremu
Olatunji, Chidi Augustine, Azarema
Abdulkadir among others.

While congratulating the officers, he
underscored the fact that their promotion
did not come by way of lobby or
compromise but based purely on merit
from available records.

Charging the officers, Ali said, “I expect
nothing less than the best. I expect from
you henceforth hard work, commitment
and drive for the best. My mission in the
NCS is to make it the best of Service not
only within Nigeria but across the
nations.

“My mission is to make sure we clean
ourselves of all the bad impression that
we carry along, my mission is to ensure
that we meet all the mandate set for us
by the government and I believe that all
of you will have no other mission than to
fall in with that and make sure that 2016
is put on the record as one of the best
years of the NCS.”

YOU SHOULD READ THIS: $2b arms procurement: Jonathan finally speaks

For the first time, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has spoken about allegations of approving a $2billion arms procurement contract.

Jonathan queried, “Where did the money come from? “I did not award a contract of $2.2billion for procurement of weapons,” reports Premium Times.

At the forum moderated by USIP Senior Advisor to the US President and member, NDI Board of Directors, Ambassador Johnnie Carson, Jonathan also shared his views on those elections and their significance in the consolidation of democratic progress in Tanzania.
He also discussed the recent political transition in Nigeria, as well as the prospects for improved governance in the country.

Recall that on Tuesday, a presidential investigations committee into arms procurement under the administration of ex-President Jonathan revealed in its interim report that it found extra-budgetary spending by the Jonathan administration to the tune of N643.8 billion and an additional $2.2 billion in the foreign currency component, all managed and supervised by ex-National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd).

But in a swift reaction, Dasuki had said in a statement Wednesday, said that all contracts and accruing payments were made based on the approval of ex-President Jonathan, adding that due process and military procurement regulations were followed in all the transactions.

Dasuki said: “Nigerians should note that all the services generated the types of equipment needed, sourced suppliers most times and after consideration by the Office of the NSA, the President will approve application for payment.”

But Mr. Jonathan said he never awarded any $2billion arms contract, suggesting that the claims by the Buhari administration were false and unsubstantiated. Mr. Dasuki had also argued along that line.

Mr. Jonathan touched on the contract issue after he stated that he was aware of allegations of huge sums of money that were said to be missing from the Nigerian treasury, but he claimed that some of the figures mentioned are not believable. “Sometimes, I feel sad when people mention these figures,” he added.

Speaking pointedly about his successor, President Jonathan said, “When the President (Buhari) paid official visit to the US, there were some figures that were mentioned that I don’t believe.”

He drew attention to figures like the $150billion alleged to have been stolen in previous Nigerian administrations, but Mr. Jonathan scoffed at the probability of “$150 billion American money” being missing and “Americans will not know where it is,” adding that at any rate President Buhari did not accuse his administration.

“He didn’t say my government, he said previous administrations… “$150 billion is not 150 billion Naira,” he stated, suggesting that “People play politics with very serious issues.”

The former president was equally dismissive of people who alleged that the sum of $59.8 million was misappropriated within a 12-month period while he was in office.

“In Nigeria, if you lose $59.8 million in a year, federal and state governments will not pay salaries,” he said, adding that there is no way Nigerian budget can accommodate such a loss without the country coming to a standstill.

“Of course we brought international audit teams, forensic auditors and they didn’t see that,” he said.

The former President said he does not want to join issues with the new government, “I wanted to keep away from the public for at least twelve months.”

Falae: We won’t refund any money to anybody

Olu Falae, national chairman of the Social
Democratic Party (SDP), says he and his party
are not returning any money to anybody.
Falae, who was earlier accused of collecting
N100 million from Sambo Dasuki, former national
security adviser (NSA), admitted that he
collected the money, but from Tony Anenih of
the PDP and not Dasuki.

Speaking through Abdul Isaiq, the SDP national
publicity secretary, Falae insisted that his party
did not get a dime from the arms fund, but from
the PDP for electoral alliance.

“In terms of refund of money, I want to say here
that those people who are refunding money are
those who got their money directly from the
arms deal fund,” he said.

“Our fund did not come from the arms deal; our
fund came from an electoral alliance with the
PDP and we knew that the PDP had a
fundraising committee that gathered billions of
naira and PDP had been in government for 16
years.

“So, with that, we knew that the PDP had the
capacity to fund the alliance that was formed
with them by the SDP. You don’t postulate what
you don’t have on the ground, you can’t build on
a non-foundation.

“We, as a political party, knew that the PDP was
a capable hand in the electoral alliance which
we entered with them. And we equally knew that
the PDP had a fundraising, where it generated
over N20 billion down.”

The party said it was left for Anenih to explain
how he got the money given to them and not for
them to refund anything of such.
“So, whether the money came from Col. Sambo
Dasuki or his office is what we don’t know and it
is left for them to ask Chief Tony Anenih to
explain.

“We knew that the PDP had been ruling Nigeria
for 16 years. So, this was the basis of our
electoral alliance with them.

“We can’t refund any money to anybody because
the money we got as a party came because of
the alliance we had with the PDP and we have
the agreement note from this alliance.

“If it is possible that the money Chief Anenih
gave us was from the arms deal, it is left for
them to ask Chief Anenih to clarify. As far as we
knew, we did not have any dealing with Dasuki.

“Our office did not ever have anything to do with
the office or person of the National Security
Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.”