The Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) has cleared the air about the news making rounds that borders in the Country have been opened.
NSC adviced Nigerians to disregard the purported viral video showing the reopening of the border.
The Service, through the National Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent of Customs Abdullahi Maiwada, described the video as malicious to mislead Nigerians.
Maiwada who debunked the rumour during a live show on the populous Human Rights Radio Brekete Family in Abuja on Tuesday morning, while urging Nigerians to always embrace authentic news emanating from the right channels.
“For over a year, Idiroko and other selected approved borders are opened for legitimate trade. It is only the borders in the northeastern part of the Country that are closed due to security issues. But major land borders in the South-West, North-West, and Ikang Border in the South South are all opened for legitimate trade,” he said.
Stressing further, the PRO said that the activities of the Service are critical to National Development considering its pivotal roles in the area of revenue generation, suppressing smuggling and trade facilitation.
He stated that the Service, under the leadership of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) CFR, has recorded various accomplishments over the years in the area of revenue generation, restructuring and reforms.
“In the last couple of years, there were a lot of significant events that brought about a paradigm shift in the activities of the Nigeria Customs Service. First of all, we used to have a sixty-three-year-old law that was not in line with the reality of 21st Century Customs.
“Today we have a brand new law called Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023. A legal framework that will enhance our performance,” he stated.
He added that many things have changed even within Customs, adding that Nigerian Customs Service recruitment has changed with transparent processes based on federal character principles.
In the area of technology, CSC Maiwada said that the Service has succeeded in embracing a modern system in its processes and procedures, having realized the importance of automation – which according to him, has resulted in creating a new program called Fast-Track 2.0 for compliant traders, non-intrusive inspection among many other initiatives.
