Mr. Chedi Wada, Comptroller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone “B”, Kaduna, has expressed regret over the use of fictitious presidential number plates by smugglers in the delivery of automobiles throughout the nation.
Wada claims that these fictitious license plates, which belong to several state and local administrations, MDAs, Emirate Councils, and other governmental organizations, have also been dubiously used by them.
When Wada received a courtesy call from Bashir Rabe-Mani, the NAN Zonal Manager (ZM) in the Kaduna Zonal Office, he divulged this.
He declared, “Customs will not back down and will keep doing everything in its power to prevent smugglers from utilizing the antiquated methods of smuggling expensive cars into the nation via presidential number plates and other official establishments.
This is one of the threats that we face. It is distressing to see how car thieves are making fun of the nation’s highest office by using presidentially issued false license plates on recently imported vehicles to trick customs officials.
He claims that customs officials are highly skilled individuals who can spot phony numbers with ease and are not susceptible to old techniques.
The comptroller stated, “We always impose a heavy hammer on those who use the presidency on false instances on smuggled vehicles because we are not happy with them and it is too bad for them to be playing with the presidency.”
“We have to respect the presidency, let them respect it too.”