The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has distanced itself from rumours making the rounds that a special auction of over 7000 cars would soon be held by the Service.The Public Relations Officer of Customs, Deputy Comptroller Timi Bomodi, made this known in a statement signed on behalf of the Comptroller General of Customs in Abuja.He urged Nigerians to always refer to the electronic auction (e-auction) platform at https://app.trade.gov.ng/eauction/ for authentic information on auctioning.According to him, e-auction remains the only authentic means of auctioning goods to members of the public.“Auctions are periodic and advertised in advance on our website to avail the public the opportunity of selecting and bidding for items of their choice.“It will be recalled that the service deployed the e-auction platform in July 2017 to improve efficiency in revenue generation to the federal government.“It was also deployed to provide equal opportunities to all Nigerians in the seamless disposal of seized and condemned, and overtime and abandoned cargoes.“Since its implementation, the e-auction has lived up to expectations by guaranteeing transparency and integrity in the auctioning process,” Bomodi said.The spokesperson said that the requirements to take part in the e-auction bidding process by interested members of the public were clear.He said that applicants must process valid Tax Identification Number (TIN), issued by Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), with an active e-mail account.Bomodi added that the conditions and terms of auction must be carefully considered by an interested person before acceptance.The NCS spokesman further said an applicant must have an authentic and nationally accepted means of identification.He explained that those means of identification include international passport, driver’s license, national identity card or voter card.Bomodi referred the public to the service’s e-auction portal at https://app.trade.gov.ng/eauction/ for further guidelines.He used the opportunity to call on owners of uncleared vehicles at the various ports to avail themselves of the VIN-Valuation protocols to clear them.He said the clearance procedure had been simplified, automated and made more user-friendly. We’re not auctioning 7000 cars – CustomsAviation fuel: Air Peace suspends flights into JohannesburgAir Peace has announced the suspension of its flights between Nigeria and Johannesburg in South Africa citing scarcity of aviation fuel among other reasons for the decision The airline in a statement it issued and made available to newsmen said it took the decision, among others, following delayed issuance of South African visas to Nigerian travellers.Other reasons given by the airline included the skyrocketing price and scarcity of aviation fuel and the unavailability of forex.While informing that the suspension takes effect from August 22, 2022, the airline however expressed optimism that it will resume operations from October 8, 2022, after the South African Government must have addressed the visa issuance problem.It said: “We hereby inform the flying public that effective from August 22, 2022, our Johannesburg flight operations will be suspended till October 8, 2022.“This development is regretted but has become inevitable due to the delayed issuance of South African visas to travelers, worsening forex crunch and the increasing cost of aviation fuel as well as its scarcity.“However, having informed the South African High Commission in Lagos of the effects of the difficulty in getting SA visas by Nigerians, which consequence is the abysmally low passenger loads on our flights to and from Johannesburg, we believe that the situation will have improved within the next 60 days. Hence, our willingness to resume operations on the October 8, 2022.”The airline said passengers whose flights are affected by the development have the option of rescheduling their flights to fly before August 22, 2022 or from October 9, 2022 or ask for “a refund via callcenter@flyairpeace.com and our team will attend to it promptly.”While apologising for the inconveniences the decision may have caused, the airline promised to keep the public updated even as it hoped for an improved situation.
