Fuel smuggling persists despite subsidy removal, says Customs ACG

Fuel smuggling persists despite subsidy removal, says Customs boss

Acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Wale Adeniyi, says fuel smuggling in the country has persisted despite the removal of subsidy.

He said it would take time to completely eradicate the menace.

He also clarified that only six of the shut land borders had been reopened.

Adeniyi made the comments on Tuesday while speaking to State House correspondents after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Customs boss said some border areas had reported seizures of fuel, adding that the rate of smuggling had however considerably reduced.

He expressed the hope that ongoing policies being implemented by the current administration would completely eliminate fuel smuggling across borders.

He said, “Well, sometimes we just want to assume that because of the subsidy, the problem will evaporate one day. So the sense I was trying to create was that it might take some time before the issue of smuggling of fuel across the border will completely dissipate.

“So in some border areas, we had reports of seizures of fuel and that is what we heard. It was the assumption generally that because the fuel is now sold at N500 per litre,it will be a disincentive for smuggling.

“But contrary to that, we have seen that they are smuggling it across the borders. The rate at which this is being smuggled has reduced considerably.”

Adeniyi also said, “It is our hope that by the time we mix some of these other policies that the government is working on, it will completely eliminate the problems of smuggling of fuel across borders.”