The Executive members of Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON) wishes Comptroller Francis Adetoye of PTML command a successful tenure during his stewardship at the Command.
The body of Journalists covering the maritime beat made this prayers during a courtesy visit to the command.
In his opening remarks, the
President of AMJON, Mr Ismail Aniemu recalled the association’s cordial relationship with the Command’s immediate past CAC of the Comptroller Aremu M.(Mrs).He said
“Your predieccesor gave us so much access, infact it’s like we are enjoying the continuation of her regime under your watch. I Want to put on record that your immediate predecessor was the only Area Controller that showed particular interest in AMJON activities and personally grace our event.
I also want to state here that our intention of visiting you is to familiarize with your person not to relate with you from afar and also to see the best we can do to contribute to the good and the best of the society .
“We as professionals are not just practicing because we are journalists working to earn a living, we also owe the society our social responsibility to also use our medium and professional calling to contribute to the good and growth of our country.
It’s good we are meeting one of us, one who is a member of our family even if he’s in Customs uniform . It’s also better for us because you wlil understand and appreciate us more. Since we have a brother in the Controller cadre, if anybody is not getting to understand us clearer, we can say ask our senior colleague, the Controller of PTML is one of us, not was one of us and your intimidating credentials also gives us confidence that your coming to this place with a wealth of experience. As an award winner, we are convinced that you are not going to lower the bow, we are in prayers with you and on behalf of my colleagues we assure you of our support, with AMJON you have our shoulders to lean on. No organisation or person is perfect, but in our quest towards doing our best we will also try as much as we can to smoothen rough edges where ever we find any. So On behalf of the entire membership of AMJON, I also want to welcome you to your new Command, I wouldn’t want to congratulate you on the posting because you are not a new Controller, you don’t congratulate a man who is taking a task, you pray for him to achieve in that task. So we pray for you that you will excel in this task and come out shinning better than you were shinning from wherever you have ever served.
Responding, Comptroller Olutade Francis Adetoye thank the AMJON team for the visit and called for continuous cooperation for a better country.
He said “Thank you very much Mr president and the distinguish Executive members of AMJON , I present before you my senior officers , we are set to rob mind with you, to work hand in hand with you, once a soldier is always a soldier,.at every point I have opportunity I will like to identify with you and ensure you succeed in your assignment.
As a Customs Officer and Controller, my job is to increase Customs revenue due to the government because that’s the major birometer to measure what we are doing here; revenue collection to government account and again to make the port friendly.
“We have to work with the environment and atmosphere friendly and to do that we have to ensure compliance, not that we are port friendly without compliance. Those who want to be friendly with us have to show friendly disposition which is compliance to the laws, no forgery, make appropriate declarations. “Smuggling is not only when evade payment of duties, but also when you bridged procedures to deprived government of taxes, its all this things we are avoiding. We will avoid infractions, facilitating legitimate trade in the process, if everyone is complaining why must we be delaying trade? Principal responsibility and function is to ensure trades are not delayed , disturbed or partubed in whatever form. Doing this job is gargantuan and I will need people to help me, one of them is the press. If we are doing well let us know, in some area we can set agenda with some of your lectures and seminars. At zonal levels we can discuss, for instance in the evening the way people go out it causes congestion and officers when they close by 9 o’clock due to bad road they are open to risks, why don’t they go in groups, or sometimes is it possible for us to work on weekends, am just setting examples . Noticing some Agents complained that due to congestion sometimes their jobs on Friday are unable to exit the port, they will have to wait till Monday.
“On our own, last Saturday we decided to come to work because we have a ship, the traffic was high and by Monday the coast was cleared, so that when another ship comes there will not be congestion . You as professionals, you are to report objectively, not like the campus press that specialize in negative and junks. You should be proactive, functional and not dysfunctional. Our contributions to the society is very important, as you are doing your work am doing mine and it must be recommendable . It’s your responsibility to advise us not to wait for us to fall, for you to report it,we welcome you at all times and that is why we have to open our doors for you. Feel free to feed us with information, not only on revenue even security and we will quickly act on it, but if I close my door how will I know if danger is looming. For this reason my door is automatically open because your role is functional even the constitution have a role for you , so we are to help ourselves, guide and put ourselves through, I think it’s a win – win affair when we work together” he said
Adetoye also pointed out that the PTML command has peculiarities, “This port is not only model, the people in charged are keeping it modern and we have all agreed to make it friendly and competitive of cause with due compliance. The revenue figure we should not just sustain the tempo at which my predecesor left it,but to move it higher”. Meanwhile the PTML command has collected a total of N47.381b from January to May 2018 as against N33.581b collected in the same period in 2017.
The Command records a breaking revenue feat since its inception in April and May 2018 a of N10.85b and N10.86b respectively.
