Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd).

Strong indications emerged that the Nigeria Customs Service is currently enmeshed in controversial vehicle auction racketeering, as the Comptroller General, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd.) allegedly sells seized exotic cars to family members, friends and cronies at ridiculously low price of N10, 000 per unit.

Recall that Ali, whose appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari remains the most criticised under this regime, had on assumption of office about seven years ago, said during his maiden press briefing at Customs Training School, Ikeja, Lagos that one of his mandates at the service was to rid it of corruption. This pledge has regrettably turned out to be a smokes screen as recent events have shown.

President of the Nigerian Association of Licensed Auctioneers, Musa Kura Abubakar, who gave the indication while speaking on a Ray Power programme, Political Platform monitored in Lagos, revealed how the Customs boss; the self-acclaimed anti-corruption Czar short-changes the Federal Government and Nigerians by selling seized imported vehicles at ridiculously low prices to his friends and cronies.

Abubakar also disclosed that the group has documents showing that the CG auctioned about 338 exotic vehicles at a total of N3.7million and another 53 vehicles at about N330, 000, which comes to less than N10, 000 per unit of vehicle, a development he argued was a fraud against the nation as a whole.

He further disclosed that the association has also challenged the CG and the entire management of the service to a debate to prove to Nigerians that such documents are false, adding that he was willing to be jailed if the documents were discovered to be false.

It was gathered that the group has petitioned the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, the Federal Ministry of Finance, relevant committees of the Senate and House of Representatives on the need to investigate the allegations with a view to checkmating further defrauding of the nation through seized vehicle auction sales.

“There is so much acts of impunity by the CG of Customs. Nigeria has laws and processes guiding the auctioning of such vehicles and not for one man to allocate them almost free to his friends and cronies. There is also a regulatory agency for auctioning in Nigeria, which is the Bureau of Public Procurement BPP and we are sure that this agency does not know anything about the sale of such vehicles at such ridiculously low prices.

“We are once again challenging Col. Ali to a debate on this and we will not stop until justice is done concerning this matter and that anyone that has a hand in this economic crime must not be allowed to go unpunished because this racketeering in the sale of seized vehicles has gone on for a very long time and we will not allow it to continue.

Investigations also showed that the Senate Committee on Public Procurement, which was petitioned by the association has fixed November 23, 2022 for a public hearing on the matter.

It would be recalled that the CG had at the initial stage set up an online platform where the vehicles condemned for auction sale were displayed to enable members of public bid for vehicles of their choice, after which successful bidders were given account details to pay before the vehicles, which are usually kept in designated government warehouses would be physically handed over to them.

It was however gathered that this method, which was lauded by many them was jettisoned shortly after for another clandestine system, which was not known to even some senior officers of management cadre, as the CG singlehandedly determined what happened to the vehicles.