Mashiah Foundation appeals to Customs to release container seized for 4 yrs

The Executive Director of Mashiah Foundation now known as Mashiah Care Initiative, Pastor Bayo Oyebade, has appealed to the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS to release the organization’s container with number NYKU4044726, which is being held for over four years by Customs officials at the Tincan Island port even when all conditions for its release have been met.

Pastor Oyebade averred that the recent media report that importers divert cargoes to Togo (as reported in The Guardian; Thursday, 13th February 2025), a smaller country to Nigeria, may not be unconnected to the series of frustrating attitudes of the officials of the Nigerian Customs Service at the Nigerian ports.

Narrating his ordeal while speaking with journalists in Jos, Plateau State, he said the issue started about four years ago when some medical equipment were donated to his organization by SOS International Inc., USA, and stressed that he has spent almost N12m on the said container yet, it is still being held by the Customs officials.

His words, “We are working with orphans, widows, and the vulnerable, giving medical and humanitarian support to them. We have scholarships for about 120 children, and we have a clinic that attends to the poor in communities. Sometime in 2020, I was in the US, and an organization, SOS International Inc., gave us a donation for these vulnerable people, and they sent the container to Nigeria.

“Before the container arrived in Nigeria, our agent first informed the Nigerian Customs Service at Tincan Island port because we needed to know what process we would follow to get it cleared, but they said we should wait till the container arrives then it arrived on Friday, 8th January 2021. So, when the container was on the ground, they asked us to pay the duty, and we paid the first duty in January 2021.

“They later said we are an NGO, so we should go and get an import duty exemption certificate from the IDEC office in Abuja and come afterwards to collect our container. So, we went and got that in June 2022. In all these, they inspected the container and confirmed that we had donated items such as hospital equipment, some hospital chairs, and beds, and a Toyota Yaris car. For every kobo they asked us to pay, we paid, we paid the duty twice, and kept going to them to release the container to us because our papers were there, yet they did not release the container.

“We have written to the Nigerian Customs Service in Abuja and visited the Customs office here in Jos, where we were informed that the container has been cleared. However, no reason has been given for its continued withholding. Every year, we follow up with them, yet after four years, the container remains unreleased. Meanwhile, they keep demanding payments from us. So far, we have spent nearly 12 million naira for agent fees and Custom clearance and on various charges here and there as they demand.

“I am exhausted. I appeal to the officials at Tincan Island to release our container. They say people are taking their cargo to Togo. Why would people not take their container to Togo if Nigerian Customs will not release a simple container? On Tuesday, 11th February 2025, a custom officer we met in Jos took our container number, tried to run a check on their site, and confirmed that all the procedures had been followed. So he was wondering why that container has not been released to us.”

Oyebade added that the equipment in the container are for humanitarian relief, and the undue delays caused by the Customs officials made it become an overtime cargo, yet with subsequent clearance, the container is still being detained and threatened to be forfeited to the Federal Government and be auctioned to the public.

The Osun State-born cleric who works in Plateau State alleged foul play and appealed to President Bola Tinubu, the hierarchy of the Nigerian Customs Service, and Nigerians to come to the aid of the vulnerable people who are in need of the medical equipment and prevail on those concerned to release the container and its contents because all legal procedures were followed and on time to get the container cleared.