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43 ‘buy’ seized cars from Customs by e-auction — even though website not working

Joseph Attah, public relations officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, says that 43 people have won the bidding of vehicles in the first 48 hours of the newly launched e-auction platform.

Attah told NAN that the platform, which was launched on Monday by Hameed Ali, Customs comptroller-general, is active and working despite claims from interested bidders that they could not access the Customs’s auction websites.

Contrary to claims by Attah that the platform is active and working, TheCable discovered that the website could not be accessed at various intervals on Wednesday as the page displayed an error message.

“Dear user, the requested page was not found (error 404).”

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Customfailedpage
Custom failed page

NAN corroborates this claim as it reports that the website could not be accessed between 4:10pm and 4:45pm on Wednesday.

“NAN reports that between 4:10 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday, July 5, the platform was showing ‘Under Maintenance’,” the news agency wrote.

“The platform also gave an instruction saying: ‘Dear user, the server is currently undergoing scheduled maintenance or upgrade. Please refresh the page in a few minutes.”

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At times when the website was functional, attempts made by TheCable to register and bid on the platform (https://app.trade.gov.ng/eauction/auction/list/all) failed as the website rejected genuine tax identification numbers.

CustomTIN
Custom TIN

According to the terms and conditions on the website, interested bidders would have to pay an administrative charge of N1000 to any branch of Jaiz bank.

Attah said other banks had not joined the exercise because of technical issues.

Customwebsite
Terms and conditions

“At the first day of the launching, there were technical challenges with the e-auction platform and these challenges have already been resolved. Potential bidders can now register smoothly without hitches.

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“The first 48 hours expired at 12noon on Wednesday and already 43 persons have won the bidding including a journalist, so you can see this platform is working.

“For now, it is only Jaiz bank that is on the platform, other designated banks are having Interswitch issues and they will soon be on board as soon as they ratify the issues. I understand that today one bank will soon be on board.”

Attah encouraged interested bidders to remain calm until other branches come on board or visit any branch Jaiz bank to pay the administrative fee.

“For those trying to register, they should go to the designated bank area on the platform, click on the Jaiz bank and print out the page from their system and go to the bank to pay.

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“This means the person has activated with Jaiz bank and the bank can key you into the bank system to enable you pay the N1 000 administrative fee, which will be transferred to your e-wallet.”

With the aid of a branch locator, TheCable found that the bank has only 30 branches across the country; six in Abuja, five in Kano, three in Lagos and Kaduna, two in Bauchi and one each in Sokoto, Oyo, Kogi, Adamawa, Rivers, Borno, Katsina, Kwara, Zamfara, Gombe and Kebbi.

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19 comments
  1. I only have one issue. I participated in the auction as a bidder. but one thing annoys me. Nigerians don’t know how to bid? this is an auction for God sake. for ezampke , If an item is listed for auction with a minimum price of 100k, I expect the first bidder to offer something like 111k. but you will see bidders offering sums even equal to the real value of that item in the market. you see someone offering to give 250k while the last bidder before him only offered 110k. I even suggest we not even start bidding on items until is some minuites to go so we could buy it at the cheapest rate.

    1. Please,How were you able to register?
      I’ve done everything possible to see where the link to register for the bidding is; could not find it.

      A guide will be helpful
      Regards

  2. I logged into d site but unfortunately, i found out dat their there are no more, information reaching me was dat most buyers were delers. Imagine 43 auction vehicles in d midst of over millions of pple.

    1. The auction platform has astronomical sum on all item’s on the last and ongoing bid. The problem seems to be system error. Mails sent on their platform has not been replied .

    2. The eauction platform has astronomical sum on all item’s on the last and ongoing bid. The problem seems to be system error. Mails sent on their platform has not been replied .

  3. Custom service should pls ignore those bidding with skyrocket figures. They are fraudulent people. For instance,how can one bid for a car which its initial bdding is 350k for 3M?

  4. pls my name is Salawudeen Usman, after pay to jaiz bank,how would I be notify? already i have my tin no an other things is available, pls my email is here my contact in case any mistake of me, thanks.

  5. Based on the guidelines, one is a to pay within 5 days of winning the bid. I feel payment should be made when the item is physically seen. Sure it will be difficult to get back the money after payment and the item is not made available

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