By OUR CORRESPONDENT

The Comptroller – General, Nigeria Customs Service, Colonel Hameed Ali, rtd, Wednesday, noted that bad governance, which culminated in the underdevelopment of border communities was fuelling smuggling in Nigeria.

He said most of the communities lack basic infrastructure, including roads, hospitals, electricity and pipe-borne water, thus cutting the areas, where smuggling remains a major activity from the rest of the nation.

Speaking at an interactive session with Senate Committee on Finance led by the Chairman, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, he said residents of such communities earned their living directly or indirectly by rendering one service or another to smugglers.

Specifically, he said: “Smuggling is one of the biggest challenges the Nigeria Customs Service is facing in its operations aimed at generating revenues for the country.

“Though the menace is global but more worrisome in Nigeria because of the collaboration of many Nigerians residing in communities across the borderlines.

“These Nigerians rather than help Customs operatives to expose and arrest the smugglers joined them to fight the operatives.”

“All these are fuelled by lack of presence of government at the border communities which made Customs set up a border management committee as a platform of carrying out Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR) “