It is no longer news that between Sagamu and Onitsha, there are about 100 roadblocks manned by different teams of the Nigeria Police Force (the regular police, Mobile Police, and FSARS), the Nigerian Army, the Federal Road Safety Corps, the Nigeria Customs Service, and other revenue agents of different state governments. In some places, the roadblocks are less than 300 metres apart. Even though these roadblocks are meant to provide security or identify defaulters, they have become grand sources of exploitation.
Among all these groups, the Nigeria Customs Service is the most feared these days. The reason is that their demands are higher than other groups. In recent years, the NCS has been on a drive to ensure that vehicles imported into Nigeria pay the appropriate duty. The recent ban on the importation of some items like rice is another reason. The border closure is another reason.
However, when I was flagged down by the NCS at Iwu, Edo State, the approach was different. Two customs officials spoke to me. I identified myself and told them that the full duty on the vehicle had been paid. They asked me rhetorically if the full duty on a vehicle could ever be paid. They asked me to give them a “Christmas gift” and go. Until then, I had not given any money to any of the officials at the checkpoints. The presence of the children in the car made it even worse to be parting with money. We always had a nice discussion and I would commend them for their work and they would wave me on upon my response that there was nothing available to give them at the moment.
However, when I was flagged down by the NCS at Iwu, Edo State, the approach was different. Two customs officials spoke to me. I identified myself and told them that the full duty on the vehicle had been paid. They asked me rhetorically if the full duty on a vehicle could ever be paid. They asked me to give them a “Christmas gift” and go. Until then, I had not given any money to any of the officials at the checkpoints. The presence of the children in the car made it even worse to be parting with money. We always had a nice discussion and I would commend them for their work and they would wave me on upon my response that there was nothing available to give them at the moment.
The manner of the demand for the Christmas gift by the customs officials was different. It was frontal and direct. I was not sure what to make of it. I hesitated, looked at my wife, but eventually brought out a N500 note to give to them. They said no, and told me that the least they would take was N2,000 or they would check my documents. At that point, I saw that it was not an appeal.
I asked them if that was meant to be a threat. They said it was not a threat but a simple statement. I insisted that I was not going to give them any N2,000. They told me if that was how I wanted it, I should bring out my customs duty documents.
My wife and I had created a separate file for the customs duty papers. I handed over the file to them and parked well. They took the file to another officer and went on to stop other vehicles. While I was parking, they had stopped another vehicle and were demanding N3,000 gratification from the driver.
The officer that had our file opened the customs duty chart on his phone. While he was doing that, I introduced myself and informed him that his colleagues gave me the condition of giving them a bribe of N2,000 or being checked. He feigned surprise and asked me which officers did that. I pointed them out. He made some weak defence that confirmed to me that it was a collective racket.
He opened the duty chart and keyed in the model of the car and the year. The duty showed that over N700,000 was meant to be paid as import duty, but our vehicle papers showed that over N600,000 was paid. Other charges made the total amount we paid N768,883. He said we did not pay the appropriate duty, but that the difference was not too high to be a big problem. We responded that we did not go through an agent, but went to the Nigeria Customs Service (FOU ZONE A), Revenue Recovery Committee, Ikeja, Lagos and paid exactly what was given to us by the NCS.