By Ajibola Abayomi
Lagos
The over N1 trillion revenue by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) had been faulted by Reno Omokri, the aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The amount, according to the NCS was the highest figure recorded by the agency under any government in the country.
The figure according to the agency represented the highest revenue ever posted by the NCS.
The Public Relations Officer of NCS, Mr. Joseph Attah had announced the figure .
However, refuting the Customs claims, Omokri, an aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan said when the value of the naira was factored in respect to its devaluation, then that the claimed generated amount was less than half of what was generated in 2014 under the former President.
“This is a huge lie. When you factor in the devaluation of the Naira, this amount is not even up to half of what was generated in 2014 under Jonathan. 978 billion in 2014 was equivalent to $6.5 billion. 1 trillion in 2017 is equivalent to $2.7 billion!” Omokri stated in a tweet.
“NCS has recorded the highest revenue collection ever of N1,012,259,006,779.74 with five more working days to the end of 2017.
“This spectacular performance in revenue collection shows N241,685,276,289.74 over the N770,573,730,490 target for the year and well above the N898,673,857,431.07 collected in 2016.
“(This is) Despite the economic recession experienced earlier in the year, with low volume of imports and restriction placed on 41 items from accessing Forex.
“The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), retired Col. Hameed Ali, undertook some strategic measures in terms of restructuring and repositioning the service for efficient service delivery which resulted in this historic revenue figure from the service this year,” Attah said.
He said that for the CGC to achieve this feat, took some measures like strategic redeployment of officers, restraining of the operatives of Customs Intelligence Unit were done, among others.
Attah said that the NCS strived to deliver, adding that sometimes even at the risk of sustaining serious injuries or even death.
“Sadly in the process of enforcing the laws, six officers fell in the line of duty this year,’’ the spokesman said.
He said that the Customs boss had directed sustained onslaught against smugglers, especially at this festive period.
