Tinubu govt’s policies will stamp out cross-border fuel smuggling — Customs CG, Adeniyi

The Acting Comptroller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Mr Wale Adeniyi, said on Tuesday that the ongoing policies being implemented by the Bola Tinubu administration would eventually eliminate fuel smuggling across the borders.

Reacting to questions that not all borders shut by the Muhammadu Buhari government in the country have been reopened, Adeniyi said a thorough review process is underway to determine which borders can be reopened.

He said this while speaking with State House correspondents on Tuesday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Customs boss recalled that “selected strategic borders” were reopened in 2022 by the former President.

“A review process is currently underway to assess the objectives of the border closure,” he said, adding that as part of efforts to enhance border security and regional integration, he would visit the Republic of Benin to engage in discussions with their Customs Administration.

The aim, according to Adeniyi, is to foster collaboration, address border security concerns, facilitate importation across the border, and explore technological solutions to complex border challenges.

“Well, it is not true that all Nigerian borders have been opened. The status quo ante still exists in the borders.

“If you remember that the borders were completely shut down 2018 up until 2022, when some selected strategic borders were reopened, that is still the situation as we speak.

“And this was why we had an ad-hoc arrangement of a special unit coordinated by the Office of the NSA (National Security Adviser) to enforce that border closure. But as we speak, about five of them have been reopened.

“Four were initially reopened and two more were opened after that. And that is still the situation. There are ongoing processes to review this situation against the objective of the border closure itself.

“And the processes are not yet completed. And of course, when the borders are reopened, it is not going to be subject of rumor in any way,” Adeniyi said.

On the issue of fuel smuggling in spite of fuel subsidy removal, Adeniyi said it might take time to completely eradicate.

According to him, the rate of smuggling has considerably reduced.

“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.

“So it was the assumption generally, that because of the fuel is now sold at N500 per liter 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.

“And it is our hope that by the time we mix some of these other policies that government is working on it will completely eliminate the problems of smuggling of fuel across borders,” the Customs Acting CG explained.