The Senate on Monday unveiled how 282 vessels disappeared from terminals in Nigeria, even as the Federal lawmakers threatened the Managing Director of Sovereign Fund Investment Authority, Uche Orji, with arrest for failing honour their summon
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff, Senator Hope Uzodinma, made the shocking revelation during a public hearing on smuggling of goods into the country.
According to Uzodinma: “We want the Nigerian Port Authority to come and explain what happened to 282 vessels that disappeared from terminals.
“We have names of the releasing officers.
“This shows that there is no security at the terminal.”
The chairman also lamented that not less than N200 billion will be lost this year alone due to the activities of smugglers in the country.
Uzodinma said: “If you go by the projected revenue of the service for this year, which is approximately N600 billion, it means that the service will loose about N200 billion in revenue this year alone.”
He said the figure of goods smuggled through the sea port is more mind burgling.
In his words: “The report has it that over $15 billion or N4.35 trillion worth of good is smuggled into the country each year through sea port.
“The story is the same in our international Airport.
“Put together, it means that goods worth over N7 trillion are smuggled into the country each year.
“The freighting thing here is that the annual turover in the hand of smugglers is more than our annual budget.”
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