N30trn revenue loss: MAN tackles Senate over issuance of arrest on CEOs

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has criticised the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff over the manner in which the committee issued an arrest order on some chief executives in respect of the alleged N30 trillion revenue losses.

Hope Uzodimma, chairman of the committee, had accused 63 firms of complicity in N30 trillion revenue loss in the import and export value chain, and subsequently issued an arrest order on 30 CEOs who did not appear in person.

MAN said the body had engaged the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) who maintained that no money was actually missing.

“In the first instance, this allegation is against respective companies and not the CEOs as individuals and so if the concerned companies in their wisdom choose to mandate a representative from the organisation who has adequate knowledge and responsibility for the issue in question to attend the inquest, we see no justification for the rejection of such a representative, not to talk of the threat of arrest of the CEOs for not attending the public hearing in person,” Frank Udemba Jacobs, president of MAN, told journalists in Lagos.

Jacobs said the the logical and first thing the committee should have done was to channel its observations or inquest to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the statutory organisation in charge of imports and exports.

He said if the committee was not satisfied with the response from the NCS and after thorough investigation, it might then avail the companies concerned with the details of the alleged infractions and then invite them to make necessary clarifications or defend themselves, adding that all these could have been done without the sensational involvement of the press.

“Our findings from the CEOs of MAN member companies affected revealed that most of them were not in the country during the time of the meeting, which informed the deployment of very senior and competent officials from their respective organisations to represent the companies. We therefore deplore this attempt to tarnish the image of the CEOs by publicly threatening them with arrest, when they have not been indicted for any wrong doing. Maligning individuals whose activities have contributed immensely to the growth of the nation’s economy is unfortunate, inappropriate and inimical to the current effort of the Nigerian Government at moving the economy completely out of recession and placing it on the path of sustainable growth,” he said.

“At the same time, it amounts to sending wrong signal to prospective investors and casting a shadow on the safety of high net worth individuals operating in our economic space,” he further said.

He stressed the need to ensure that rights of individuals engaged in legitimate business ventures in Nigeria were respected and protected, adding that the man-hour and resources expended in honouring such invitations should also be taken into account as these invitations had become more frequent, and in some cases, such appointments had been cancelled after the CEOs arrived the venue of the meetings or the expectedly busy CEOs were left waiting for hours before the meetings commence.

MAN expressed readiness to engage the committee with a view to facilitating the promotion of a healthy relationship between the government, or its agencies and our member companies.

In a recent press release, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) had maintained a similar stance, urging the committee to tread with caution.

One manufacturer told Real Sector Watch that the committee’s claim was laughable.

“What is the size of the Nigerian economy? The money they are talking about is even more than Nigeria’s total budget in the last five years. How can this amount be lost without the Customs knowing, especially when you say it happened in a space of two years?” the manufacturer queried.

ODINAKA ANUDU