The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have advocated proactive measures and strategies to foster greater collaboration with sister security agencies against corruption by officers and stakeholders in the country.
Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi made this known when he led his team on an official visit to the Chairman of ICPC, Musa Adamu in Abuja on Thursday, July 25, 2024.
Addressing the ICPC Boss and his team at the Commission’s Headquarters, Adeniyi sought the commission’s cooperation to join hands with the Nigeria Customs Service in mitigating the root of corruption amongst non-compliant traders and officers, saying: “Our reasons for collaborating with the ICPC is so perfect because we consider ICPC as the critical witness of government.”
Speaking on his successes in terms of revenue generation since he assumed office in 2023, Adeniyi said: “We have achieved over 70 percent increase in revenue generation in the last one year, paid attention to our security mandates and we are doing our best to ensure that we keep the bad guys out of our borders.
“We believe that it is also possible for us to take a second look at areas that are prone to corruption and the integrity gaps by ourselves, to tackle them and bring back the glory of the country in terms of trade facilitation and ease of doing businesses.”
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Adeniyi, however, expressed the hope that fighting corrupt practices will be easier by forming a strong alliance between the two agencies, as it will aid them in discharging their mandates, adding: “So, this is why I felt that we need to put ICPC among the critical agencies of government we are collaborating with.”
The Customs helmsman, who commended ICPC’s efforts in the course of tracking and curtailing corrupt practices in Nigeria, said the NCS, under his watch, reviewed all areas that are prone to corruption and integrity gaps in its system, which, according to him, needed the assistance of the commission to mitigate the menace.
“This is why we felt we needed a partnership with an agency like yours to teach transparency into our system. And we believe that once we make it possible to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NCS and ICPC, we will achieve this in a number of ways in terms of specific areas,” he stated.
On his part, Chairman of ICPC, Adamu, while welcoming Adeniyi and his team, commended his move to tie the knot with the commission to mitigate corrupt practices in Nigeria, pointing out that the ICPC has achieved numerous milestones in preventing corruption and paving the way for partnering with stakeholders to ensure a prosperous Nigeria.
He said: “I believe the responsibility to promote Nigeria’s image is on our shoulders and will we achieve greatness through sanitizing Nigeria and collaborating with the NCS.”
Adamu stressed that one of the ways to achieve the fight against corruption is to organize capacity building for traders and stakeholders to train them on how to avoid engaging in what would be considered sabotage to the nation’s economy.
