CSO Petitions EFCC Over Alleged Economic Sabotage At Kano FTZ

A civil society organisation, Centre for Awareness on Good Governance and Development, has petitioned the Economic Financial and Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged illegalities taking place at the Nigerian Export Processing Zone Authority’s (NEPZA) Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in Kano State, leading to loss of billions of Naira in revenue.

In the petition addressed to the Zonal Director of the Commission in Kano and signed by the CSO’s Executive Director, Abubakar Auwal Yakubu, the group alleged that the illegality was allegedly taking place under the watch of some unpatriotic operatives of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).

A copy of the petition, which sighted by LEADERSHIP, reads in parts: “We write as a member of the civil society organisation to bring your immediate attention to the Economic Sabotage of Monumental Proportion going on at the Kano Export Processing Zone at Panisau in Kano State.

“Our complaint is to the effect that for sometime now the management and other officials charged with the operationalization and Management of the Kano Free Trade Zone have unpatriotically turned the Zone into an illegal hub of economic sabotage by engaging in action prejudicial to the purpose of the establishment of the said Zone.

“These heinous actions include the embarking on mass clearance of finished goods contrary to the law and objectives of the establishment of the said Zone. Note, Sir, that the main objective of the Free Trade Zone being Export Processing Zone is to add value to the process and clear primary goods for export at the Zone.

“It has no mandate over finished goods that have other designated outlets for their processing and clearance.

“By the provision of section 6(1)of Nigerian Export Processing Zone Act, the management of the Export Processing Zone is only empowered to deal with and engage in activities in the third schedule of the Act. Those activities do not include processing of finished goods for export.”

The group, therefore, called on the EFCC to investigate the alleged illegality as the nation was losing billions of naira to economic saboteurs, which is very dangerous to the economy.

Yakubu further called on the EFCC to stop the illegality in order to save the nation from alleged monumental economic loss.