Lagos: The Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has sought collaboration from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and the Department of State Services (DSS) to protect the maritime domain.
The Controller of the command, Comptroller Patrick Ntadi, made this disclosure when his team visited the office of the Immigration officer in charge of the Lagos Seaport/Marine Command in Lagos on Wednesday.
(Picture of the customs area controller, Western Marine Command, Comptroller Patrick Ntadi and his team, the Controller Immigration Lagos Sea ports and Marine, Clementina Ogbudu and officers during a courtesy visit by wester Marine to the command in Apapa, Lagos)
Ntadi explained that the purpose of his visit was to create synergy on how to share intelligence to enable them achieve success in their core mandate of promoting legitimate trade and combating smuggling.
The Comptroller acknowledged that the relationship between Customs and Immigration Services goes beyond government operations.
Ntadi reiterated the Comptroller-General, Bashir Adeniyi’s core mandate of collaboration, consolidation, and innovation.
“Intelligence sharing will assist both agencies to achieve more success because if an officer is on land, he can easily shout and run, while it will be difficult for an officer to call for help at sea in the middle of the night.
(From second left, the Director, Department of Security Service, Mr Babaide Adisa, the Customs Area Controller, Western Marine command, Comptroller Patrick Ntadi and others in during a courtesy visit to DSS office in Lagos on Wednesday.)
“Such an officer can be relieved if there is synergy with other sister agencies such as Immigration, who will assist him in that situation.
“I purposely called for proper collaboration to enable Customs achieve more in combating smuggling activities at sea,” he said.
Ntadi said that training would go a long way in changing the attitude of junior officers toward adopting a collaborative strategy during operations.
Immigration, Shamsudeen Mustapha, appreciated Customs for strengthening collaboration between them.
Mustapha, also the Head of Human Resources Management of Lagos Seaport and Marine, said that the collaboration would have a positive impact on their operations as they looked forward to being sensitised by the Comptroller of Customs.
Ntadi also had a closed-door meeting with a Director, Department of State Services, Mr Babajide Adisa, said their visit was to collaborate for more robust synergy to protect the security of the country.
