Officials of NCS Accused of Violations of Extant Laws in Auctioning Process

By: Michael Mike

The President of the Association of Licensed Auctioneers of Nigeria, Musa Kurra, has accused officials of the Nigeria Customs Service of engaging in widespread impunity and violating extant laws in disposal of seized goods and containers.

Kurra made the allegation in a statement on Friday, where he described some of the actions of Customs officers in conducting direct allocations of seized items to politically connected companies and individuals as “the reckless disregard for due process”

The allegation was made against the backdrop of leaked documents which exposed direct allocation and sales of impounded containers to some firms by the NCS.

The allocation letters titled: “Direct Auction Allocation of Containers” were signed by HH Hadison, Comptroller, Special Duties, between April and July 2025.

The letters, which bear the seal of the Nigeria Customs Service Committee on Direct Disposal of General Goods, were issued to multiple private companies approving the allocation of 40-foot containers containing vehicles, prefabricated houses, construction slabs, tiles, hospital equipment, and cartons of goods, at auction fees ranging from N1m to N2m.

A review of at least five separate letters suggests a pattern of manual approvals allegedly linked to insiders within the agency.

Each letter followed a similar format, bearing the same signatory, HH Hadison, fwc, psc(+), Comptroller, Special Duties, and written on the Customs’ letterhead and watermark with the “RESTRICTED” mark.

One of the letters, dated 31 July 2025 and addressed to a company with the code MSMU8098517, approved the release of four containers reportedly containing luxury vehicles, including Lexus RX330s, Lexus ES330s, and a Toyota Highlander, at the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos. The vehicles were auctioned at a combined fee of N2m.

Another document dated 15 June 2025 approved the disposal of a container marked TCKU0400440, described as a “prefabricated house,” at N2m, while a separate letter from May 2025 allocated a container of “construction slabs” under similar conditions.

Two earlier letters dated 11 and 17 April 2025, respectively, allocated several containers containing “used hospital equipment,” “cartons of drinks,” “Versace bond cement,” “pallets of tiles,” and “packages of steel,” to unnamed companies, also for N1m to N2m each.

In each of the approvals directive was beneficiaries to make payments within five working days and evacuate the containers within 10 working days or risk forfeiture.

The letters also warned that allocations “transferred or sold to third parties shall be at the buyer’s risk.”

One of the letters titled, ‘Direct auction allocation of containers’ read in part, “I am directed to inform you that the Comptroller-General of Customs has allocated the listed containers to your company.

“This approval is in line with the provisions of the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023, section 119, via direct auction sale. The containers shall be released to the beneficiary subject to the following conditions which are designed to ensure transparency and integrity throughout this direct auction allorati process

“Evidence of payment of the Auction Fee and 7.5 per cent VAT of the Auction Fee, all to be made at any duty-collecting bank. You are to pay the following charges in addition to the above.

“Payment of 25 per cent of the auction fee being terminal charges. Payment of 25 per cent of the auction fee, including shipping charges.

“You are to provide evidence of payment within 5 working days upon receipt of this auction allocation letter; otherwise, the allocation will be forfeited. All containers disposed of must be evacuated from the premises within 10 working days after payment or time forfeiture. Furthermore, you are to note the following caveats; Applications for the replacement of allocated containers would not be entertained.

“Any allocation letter transferred or sold by the allottee to a third party shall be at the buyer’s risk.

“Please accept the assurances of the highest esteem and regard of the Comptroller-General of Customs.”

Kurra while alleging an underhand tactics in the auctioning, said the recurring pattern of N2m per container suggests a fixed-fee arrangement inconsistent with the valuation process typically applied during legitimate auctions.

He said: “I don’t know why people choose not to respect the law anymore. The impunity with which the Service is carrying out things now is better imagined,” Kurra said. “I don’t understand what kind of country we are.”

He explained that the Bureau of Public Procurement, which was established by law as the regulatory body overseeing procurement matters, also has oversight responsibility in auction processes since auctions involve public assets and financial transactions.

“You see, there is an agency called the Bureau for Public Procurement. The BPP happens to be the regulatory body in charge of anything that has to do with procurement. An auction has to do with procurement,” he said. “BPP’s Act was promulgated by the National Assembly and assented to by the President.”

Kurra, you hike referencing the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, which he said clearly outlines how confiscated or forfeited assets should be managed and disposed of by any law enforcement agency, explained that: “Under the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022, all forfeited or seized assets by law enforcement agencies, including Customs, are to be disposed of through transparent processes, either by public auction or sale, supervised by the relevant oversight bodies. The Act prohibits direct allocation or sale of seized items to individuals or organisations outside approved channels, with violations attracting criminal sanctions.

“The POCA Act takes care of everything that concerns dealing with forfeited items. Anything that is a proceed of crime must be valued by a qualified valuer before auctioneers are invited to sell the property,” he explained. “But Customs has been flouting these provisions without remorse.”

According to him, the so-called “direct auction allocations” being carried out by the Nigeria Customs Service are illegal and not backed by any law.

“If they follow due process, we don’t have issues with them,” he said. “But when they flagrantly abuse powers that don’t belong to them, that’s where the problem lies. There is no law anywhere in this country that gives them the right to do what they are doing.”

Kurra alleged that Customs officers have been allocating seized cars and containers at ridiculous prices to cronies and companies linked to senior officials.

“What is happening is that Customs officers are issuing cars and seizing items at lower amounts without any publicised auctioning,” he said. “There was a time the Service allocated 380 vehicles to one company for N3.8 million. Among those vehicles were Prados, Hiluxes, and Benzes, each going for N10,000. This is robbery.”

He also cited another instance where 53 vehicles were allegedly allocated to a single company for N530,000, translating to about N10,000 per vehicle.

“Even a bicycle now cannot sell for N10,000, not to talk of a Prado or a Hilux,” Kurra said. “When we traced some of these deals, we discovered that the companies involved belong to Customs officers and their families.”

The auctioneers’ president called on the Federal Government to urgently intervene, warning that unchecked corruption and illegality within the Customs Service are denying Nigeria significant revenue.

“If the government is serious, they need to checkmate these people,” he said. “The president needs money to work for the people, but instead of generating it lawfully through Customs and other agencies, some individuals are enriching themselves.”

Kurra argued that the current situation leaves Customs as both the seizing authority, the valuer, and the auctioneer, a process he described as lawless and self-serving.

“In the case of Customs, they seize, they value, they auction, all by themselves. So, who is regulating them? Nobody,” he lamented. “There is a law guiding these things, but they ignore it. It’s time the government steps in to restore sanity
End

Diplomatic Community Calls for Stricter Sanctions Against Russia to End Siege on Ukraine

By: Michael Mike

A call has been made for stricter global sanctions against Russian Federation to compel it to stop the continued attacks of Ukraine.

Members of the Diplomatic Community in Nigeria who spoke to our correspondent insisted that the condemnation of Russian attacks on Ukraine has not shown to be sufficient to put an end to the attacks, insisting that something heavier needed to be done to make Russia stop the siege.

The European Council had recently adopted a sweeping 19th package of further 69 individual listings and numerous economic restrictive measures targeting key sectors which allegedly fuel Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including energy, finance and the military industrial complex.

The Council is also strengthening control over the movement of Russian diplomats across the EU and taking further measures against those responsible for the abduction of Ukrainian children.

As part of the package, the Council also imposed further measures on Belarus to restrict the latter’s support for the Russian war effort.

The package is said to have come in response to Russia’s escalating aggression against Ukraine, in particular the recent brutal military campaign deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, including energy, water and health facilities. These attacks, which have inflicted severe suffering on the civilian population, are seen to further underscore Russia’s unwillingness to pursue peace.

Some of the diplomats who spoke to our correspondent insisted that though the world has shown to be against the invasion with United Nations resolutions but extra actions need to be taken to twist the arms of Russian.

They stated that such action should include stop of diplomatic relations, trading, among others.

Ukrainian authorities have recently drawn the attention of the international community to the large-scale, deliberate, targeted, and systematic use of cluster munitions by Russia during its aggression against Ukraine.

Among the numerous documented cases, it alleged the killing of 22 people and injury of 31 in Chernihiv on 17 March 2022, following an MLRS Uragan strike; the attack on Kramatorsk on 8 April 2022, with a Tochka-U cluster missile that hit the railway station during the evacuation of civilians, resulting in the killing of 54 and 135 wounded; the missile strike on Kyiv on 17 June 2025, with a Kh-69 missile, after which 29 objects resembling cluster submunitions were discovered.

It claimed this is far from an exhaustive list of Ukrainian cities where the Russian Federation has used cluster munitions, alleging that Russian perpetrators deliberately and systematically use cluster munitions to maximize civilian casualties and destruction.

It decried that this is an element of Moscow’s broader policy of terror against the Ukrainian people, noting that such actions by Russia constitute a flagrant violation of fundamental norms of IHL.

The Ukrainian authorities further alleged that Russian troops apply the devastating practice of repeated air strikes in the same places to cause casualties among unarmed medics, police and rescuers who arrive at the scene of the attacks.

It said: “The nature of Russian double strikes has become much more brutal and targeted against members of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine, who are protected persons under IHL. Since February 2022, at least 105 rescuers have been killed in the line of duty, and more than 500 have been injured. We are recording a further increase in the number of attacks by Russia on humanitarian personnel, transport, and cargo. This is targeted terror against emergency services.

“Russia openly publishes videos showing how it deliberately targets rescuers with drones — people who are not fighting, who are unarmed and who are saving lives after Russia’s own shelling. This is not just terror — it is blatant inhumanity. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale military invasion, 105 employees of the State Emergency Service have been killed and 502 wounded. These actions fall under the category of war crimes.”

Diplomatic Community Calls for Stricter Sanctions Against Russia to End Siege on Ukraine

COAS recounts personal battle injury during fight with Boko Haram, assures wounded troops of full support in maiduguri

By: Zagazola Makama

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Waidi Shuaibu, on Thursday, visited wounded soldiers receiving treatment at the Maimalari Cantonment Medical Centre, Maiduguri, with a strong message that the Nigerian Army will not abandon troops injured in the line of duty.

Shuaibu’s visit followed growing concerns among injured personnel and internally displaced persons (IDPs), who fear that recent intensified insurgent activities in parts of Borno may signal a renewed wave of attacks.

Addressing the wounded soldiers, the COAS disclosed that he was once admitted to the same hospital after sustaining gunshot wounds while fighting Boko Haram in the North East.

“I was once like you. I was brought to this same hospital when I was wounded in battle. I understand what you are going through,” he said.

Shuaibu assured them of the Army’s commitment to ensuring their full medical recovery and welfare, insisting that their sacrifices would never be forgotten.

“I want to assure you of our total support to enable you recuperate fully. Your sacrifices will not be in vain,” he added.

The COAS said the renewed offensive operations being planned by the military would place troops’ safety and welfare at the centre of decision-making, noting that the Army under his leadership would prioritise timely evacuation, improved medical response and adequate compensation for injured personnel.

He also urged them to remain courageous, stressing that their resilience inspires ongoing and future operations.

Some wounded soldiers who spoke expressed relief and said the visit restored confidence that they were not forgotten.

COAS recounts personal battle injury during fight with Boko Haram, assures wounded troops of full support in maiduguri