The 43 winners of the first batch of Customs e- auction exercise today took possession of various brands of vehicles they won.
The winners, who thronged the Idiroko border where the vehicles were handed over to them, were full of joy as they lauded the Customs management for the novel exercise which they adjudged to be transparent.
Monday Abueh, Assistant Comptroller General of Customs in charge of Zone A (South West) who supervised the maiden handover of vehicles won to successful bidders told journalists that the service is committed to utmost transparency in the entire process.
Abueh said the bidding and the processes leading to allotting victory to the highest bidder will continue to be devoid of interference by customs officers and their relations in line with the guidelines
Also speaking at the flag off, Sani Madugu, Customs Area Controller in charge of Ogun Command, said the first set of winners were taking their vehicles in his area because seizures from Ogun area were the first to be uploaded on the portal.
He added that the Controller General, Col Hameed Ali (Rtd) and members of the management team approved the process as a continuous one and that winners of other bidding rounds will be receiving the won items from other areas where they were seized, domiciled or warehoused.
Madugu said one of the vehicles won, a Toyota Corolla, 2015 model is brand new and was delayed in customs control after seizure because of the due diligence of court condemnation and approved time for auction.
Madugu said ”We seized this 2015 model Corolla as a brand new vehicle because duty was not paid and attempts were being made to smuggle it into Nigeria. What you see on its dust due to the long period it was parked”
Some of the winners who could not hide their joy adjudged the process to be very fair and hundred percent transparent.
Aminu Gidado, a geologist based in Benin City won a 2002 Sienna space car for N300,000.He lauded the idea of electronic auction but expressed worries that some bidders in the second round were using what he called ‘high price’ to scare other bidders away.
”It is fantastic.I got to know about it in a WhatsApp group. I just tried and succeeded in winning this vehicle. I am very happy about it. I tried again in the second bidding but discovered that some bidders are trying to hijack it with high price” Gidado said while driving out of the customs premises.
Another winner, Onaifo Francis, a public servant who won a Honda CRV, Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) for N350,000 said he read about it on Facebook. He described the car as being in very good condition
A serving police officer based in Abuja, Charles Ivbeakharbokun won a brand new 2015 model Toyota Corolla for N2.6m.
Ivbeakharbokun said he got to know about the customs electronic auction through Twitter and within a period of one hour he was able to perfect his bidding using Jaiz Bank for his electronic wallet funding.
He described his car as perfect and in good working state
The recently launched Electronic Auction initiative will increase federal government revenue generation and help in ports decongestion.
The new initiative was recently launched in Abuja by the Comptroller General of Customs.
According to the CG, the electronic auction bidding process replaced the manual process of auctioning cars which was allegedly characterized by fraud and other vices.