Kwara Customs Chief Gives Update On Reopening Of Borders , Announces Receipt Of 4 Border Patrol Vehicles
Area Controller, Kwara Area Command, Nigeria Customs Service. Comt. Kehinde Dehinde Ilesanmi, on Tuesday gave an update on borders that are located in states under the Area Command clarifying that they have remained closed until a contrary directive is received from the NCS headquarters.
Taking questions from journalists including Team@orientactualmags.com after formally handing over two suspected stolen vehicles to the Lagos state police command at the headquarters of the Kwara state Area command , Ilorin on Tuesday, Ilesanmi noted that the subsisting ‘closure order’ remains in force.
‘What comes out of the budget that is dovetailed into the fiscal policy is sent to the Comptroller General of Customs, who in turn sends it to us.
Each time I read on the pages of newspapers that the borders have been reopened, I know it is not my own source of directives.
What I have done this morning, I was directed to do so. If I see it on the front page of a newspaper or an online news outlet that the borders of Kwara have been reopened, I will put my hand on my cheek and wait for directives. Not the directives of the minister but that of the Comptroller-General of Customs. It is only then I can write ‘I am directed’ and that is sacrosanct.
May I say that I have not been given any directive to reopen the borders in Kwara Area Command. The only directive I was given is that the borders remain closed’ he said.
Recall that the then President Muhammadu Buhari had in August 2019 ordered that all land borders in the country should be closed as part of efforts to curtail smuggling and enhance local production of rice.
In December 2020, he ordered that Seme ,Ikela ,Maitagari, Mfun boders should be reopened, while he also added Idiiroko, Jibya, Kamba and Ikom in April 2022 .
In the meanwhile, Ilesanmi has also gleefully announced receipt of four border patrol vehicles that were made available to the Area Command by the NCS headquarters.
‘The Command would like to use this medium to appreciate the magnanimous support of the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi (MFR) and his management team for giving us Four (4) additional patrol vehicles that will in a great way assist the Command to achieve great results’ he said- Team@orientactualmags.com
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