T
he Court of Appeal in Kaduna has ruled that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) lacks constitutional authority to confiscate imported goods, such as foreign rice, in open markets or on highways.
Delivering judgment in an appeal filed by the NCS, the three-member panel, led by Justice Ntong Ntong, upheld the earlier ruling of the Federal High Court, Kaduna, which discharged Suleiman Mohammed, a 37-year-old businessman, of a two-count charge relating to the importation of foreign goods. The appellate court also ordered the release of 613 bags of rice, 80 bags of millet, and a truck—worth approximately N200 million—seized from Mohammed on the Kaduna-Zaria Expressway in June 2019.
Justice Ntong ruled that the Kaduna-Zaria Expressway does not qualify as a “land border” under Nigerian law and that the Customs Service had no right to arrest Mohammed or confiscate his goods on that route. The court emphasized that the NCS’s mandate is limited to monitoring land borders for contraband, not highways or expressways.
“The defendant was merely a buyer of rice and millet from the Central Market, Gusau, in Zamfara State, with proof of purchase,” Justice Ntong stated. “Nigeria Customs ought to have targeted the actual importers of contraband goods rather than petty traders and consumers purchasing in the open market.”
In a strongly worded verdict, the court criticized the NCS for neglecting its duty at the borders while pursuing smaller traders. Drawing from an Annang idiom, Justice Ntong likened the situation to “a fowl ignoring the person who killed it but chasing the one removing its feathers.”
The court also reprimanded Customs officials for conducting a “shoddy investigation” from their offices without proper fieldwork. It ruled that if the confiscated items could not be returned, the NCS Board must compensate Mohammed with the current value of the goods.
The appeal was dismissed, and the court ordered the Nigeria Customs Service to comply immediately with its judgment.
