Customs denies accusation of corruption on waivers

The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) on Friday denied making any accusation of corruption in the implementation of waivers, a Federal Government policy.

This was contained in a news statement signed by Mr Adewale Adeniyi, Public Relations Officer of Customs, which was made available to the news men in Lagos.

He said this was to correct the contradictions made by some media organisations that the customs opposed the Minister of Finance, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on the issue.

'Contrary to the impression created by the publications, no official of the Customs had made any pronouncement or issued any document to any media house on the same issue.

'We align ourselves with the industrial policy of Federal Government being implemented by the Coordinating Minister for Economy (CME),'' Adeniyi said.

Adeniyi said that the customs was aware of the efforts of the minister in transforming the economy of the country.

'We are aware of the minister's serious efforts at sanitising the system in line with her well-known reputation to ensure that implementation meets with the highest standard of international best practice.

'NCS, as an agency of government, we are not in a position to contradict policies aimed at economic transformation.

'As we assure the CME of our unalloyed loyalty, we call on Nigerians to disregard any wrong impression by these publications,'' the statement said. (NAN)