Matilda Omonaiye/
Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) today issued a statement to justify the actions of its officers who asked a Nigerian woman to pay a duty of N175, 000 on a bag and pair of trainers that she brought into the country through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The statement signed by the spokesman of NCS, Mr Joseph Attah, corroborated the claims of Adaeze Udenzi, which was published by NewsmakersNG.
Here’s Adaeze’s earlier published lamentation: “I arrived Abuja from London yesterday October 18, 2019, at about 4.30 am with ONE pair of trainers and ONE mini boy bag bought at the duty-free shop in Heathrow (Please see pictures below). For the records, I am a banker. I am not a trader.
“To my shock, Customs at Abuja airport headed by one Ms Essien and T. Abdulrahman said these do not qualify as personal effects and calculated duty payment of about N175,000 for me to pay. Most shocking to me was that I was the only passenger on that flight BA 083 from London that was singled out for this treatment.
“My question now is, what are Nigerians able to buy when they travel? Ms Essien says that Nigerians are only entitled to N50,000 worth of goods. Everything above N50,000 is considered luxury and dutiable…”
Here’s the full text of the NCS’ reaction:
PRESS RELEASE
The attention of the Nigeria Customs Service has been drawn to a misleading narrative by one Mrs Udensi Adaeze Nwagboliwe whose claim of being ill-treated at the airport on the bases of her gender, tribe or where she comes from is going viral on the social media.
Mrs Nwagboliwe who arrived the country onboard BA083 with passport No. A07994773 at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport had claimed that she was singled out and slammed with Customs Duty payment for one pair of shoes and “a mini boy bag” that should have been allowed to pass freely as personal effects.
There is therefore the need to make public what actually transpired to put the record straight, especially as she maliciously introduced gender, tribal and other unnecessary sentiments into what was simply a case of being told to pay duty as what was in her possession was far above the allowable value of N50,000.00 and certainly beyond what normal discretion would allow.
Upon routine search of this passenger’s luggage, operatives discovered a Loius Vuitton bag and shoe. Obviously knowing the luxury brand (Loius Vuitton), she was asked to produce the receipt which will be the bases for duty calculation or not. She could not produce the receipt of what she claimed she bought at the duty-free shop at the point of departure, saying the receipt was with her husband who did not travel with her.
The officers had to take the long route of ascertaining the current worth of her items through the internet. The luxury items were found to be worth N570,467.40k.
Consequently, appropriate duty assessment of N165, 692.25k was made and given to her to pay into Federal Government coffer. Since she could not immediately go and pay, a detention notice was given to her showing that the items will remain with the Nigeria Customs Service until she pays and brings evidence of payment before they will be released to her.
Instead of paying the assessed duty and pick up her items or request to see any superior officer should she have any reservation on the assessed value,
she took to irresponsible use of the social media drawing all sorts of conjectures, gender (even when the officer, Ms Essien who attended to her is a lady), tribe etc and even inciting the public against the Service.
Up till now, it is not clear why this lady would descend this low as to insulting a fellow woman and declaring her not fit to perform her duty and still find it convenient to complain of being ill-treated on the bases of gender.
Since her attempt to evade duty payment by refusing to produce receipt could not work, it appears convenient to transfer reluctance to pay tax into
unnecessary public incitement.
For the avoidance of doubt, we are aware that many Nigerians complain about the allowable amount of N50,000.00, but until the law is changed, Nigeria Customs Service will continue to enforce the extant law that says personal effects shall not exceed the value of N50,000.00. Anything more than the approved value is considered Merchandise in Baggage and therefore liable for duty payment.
We, therefore, call on members of the public to disregard these conjectures and give assurances of our resolve to treat all Nigerians with deserved courtesy and respect in the discharge of our statutory functions.
Signed:
DC, Joseph Attah
Public Relations Officer
For: Comptroller-General of Customs
NewsmakersNG’s earlier published story:
1
This airport spokesman must be a comedian , so all these Nigerian executives , politicians and rich men that visits the Americas and the United Kingdom are allowed to come in with goods not more than the cost of 50,000,00 Naira (40dollars or 30 pounds )….nah ?……..The customs singled out the innocent woman to frustrate her with abnormal duties so she could abandon her classy bags and shoes for the future consumption of the uniformed thieves working as customs in our airports …The drunkard even cited the internet as the base the customs used in calculating the exact price of the product abroad … Haba! …..Am very sure if the woman had responded to them in Hausa language or having one Abubakar just at the end of her names that 50 thousand Naira would have changed to 50 million Naira….,,,,.Awon Eniyan jatijati!🤦🏻♀️
The response of the action of this issue is totally unacceptable the victim says what she believes in and like anyone else am not conversant with thi law of 50.000 allawans for personal effect when at one stage I got BTA of 2.000 dollar
How old is this law of 50.000 something is wrong and not a good image of my country Nigeria at point of entry this is happening
To me this action shouldn’t have gone this far and adiquit public awareness should be introduced but I will say with my ever ready answer to every questions and receipt at hand at all time have not encountered any problem as a regular traveller but with this 50.000 Naira !!!! ????
L R Jinadu UK
What’s abnormal in paying duty? She can afford o buy a bag worth more than N500k but does not want to pay duty on it. Same way you folks don’t pay tax but quick to pay tithes to criminal pastors. Who is doing who? The law is the law. Custom official single people out of the crowd at all airports. Recently I was singled out while returning to USA as others around me were let go. I did not cry that its because I was black or Nigeria. To move the country forward, Nigerians must learn to do the right. The woman just wasted over $1000 of the country foreign exchange on something of no value to Nigerians.
You may be right but the issue is the allowance of 50.000 Naira the law have to be more transparent
Who is supposed to initiate a review of the law that limits whatever personal effects one may bring into Nigeria to N50,000.00 only. Should the NCS not have taken steps to make a push knowing this amount is unrealistic even when you can have a personal travel allowance of nearly N1.5m? By the way, how does a personal effect suddenly becomes a merchandise? A merchandise is what you intend to put on for sale and it very wrong to assume that a single canvass and a bag are items intended for sale by the lady. They probably would want to check the cost of her undies if we continue like this. I do not support ostentatious lifestyles but this is a joke taken too far.
abiodun.foluso@gmail.com
How can a pair of shoe and bag qualify as merchandise in baggage. No matter the cost it is simply ‘personal effect’. How can you set the limit at #50,000 when we know that in Nigeria families are usually large. Am not oppose to paying taxs or levies but I think our brains should function in accordance with reality.
I believe this is a case of the lady in question refusing or neglecting to settle the officers on duty,if she had parted with some dollars the matter would have been settled.Without suggesting that the lady should have bribed the officers,I just want to point out that these officers at our various points of entry turn blind eyes to container loads of contraband goods including arms and ammunition, dangerous drugs and what have you if adequately settled.Those who refuse to play ball are made scapegoats.QED
The Nigeria security agencies should handle all matters on there desk with all fairness and kind treatment , how on earth will you bill your own citizen so high on personal effects , you would’ve simply ask her to forfeit the items to you and go home empty handed , you simply billed her high so she can not be able to pay while you and your team will go through the back door and dispose the stuff through black market , Nigeria custom should fire this idiot .