Four Agents Forged My Signature To Clear Imported Vehicles – Customs Tincan Island Boss

NCS Tincan Island Command boss Oloyode says four agents were arrested for forging his signature to clear their vehicles.

Oloyode, who said that the agents wanted to clear four trucks and some cars, added that they had been granted administrative bail.

He said this while briefing journalists on the half-year report of the command, which he said collected N274.320b. 

The Customs Area Controller, Tincan Island Command, Comptroller Adekunle Oloyede, says that four clearing agents were arrested for forging his signature to clear their imported vehicles from the ports.

The Customs boss, who said that the agents wanted to clear four trucks and some cars, added that they had been granted administrative bail.

Oloyode said this while briefing journalists on the half-year report of the command, which he said collected a total sum of N274.320 billion between January and June.

The CAC said :

“We discovered an incident of forgery of the signature of the Area Controller, which is why you have this here. The standard procedure for the clearance of non-standard Vehicles Identification Number is that the CAC must approve the use of that particular code. So, their papers were still on my table but they went ahead to forge my signature on another application.”

“They were trying to escape and get out of the terminal. The officers that were supposed to release the goods were vigilant enough because I sent to all the terminals a sample of my signature. So, these four trucks belong to four different people and they actually forged my signature.

“They were apprehended and locked up for sometime, but for the sake of human rights, they are on administrative bail for now. But as we go ahead, definitely, we are going to prosecute them.”

• See Also : Vin Valuation : Customs Confirms Plan To Auction 7,000+ Uncleared Vehicles At Lagos Ports

On the revenue collected between January and June 2022, the CAC the figure represented a 27.50 per cent increase from what the command collected within the same period in 2021.

Oloyode said that the command had strengthened the risk management structure to mitigate the consistent attempts by some non-complaint agents to abuse the process through act of commercial fraud.

“At the command level, we faced challenges at the early stages of the deployment due to the degrees of understanding of the process, most especially on the part of stakeholders.

“Nevertheless, we have been able to overcome them as we put into force Article 2 of the trade facilitation agreement through continuous engagement and consultations with the relevant stakeholders which led to updates and upgrades of the service to address some of these challenges.

According to him, the command recorded an outward throughput in export cargo of 138,245.50 metric tons, representing an increase by 73 per cent from 100,500 recorded in 2022.

“With a Free on Board of N100 447, 304, 814.00 this represents an increase of 69 percent from N66, 294, 630,421.00 recorded in the fiscal year of 2022.”

• See Also : Trouble Looms Over Customs Re-introduction of VIN Valuation, Clearing Agents Say ‘We Are Not Party To It’