Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘A’, Ikeja, of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has seized contraband items valued at N2.5billion in the last six months.
The seizures include goods in which the Unit had to recover some duties through the issuance of Demand Notices (DNs) and others that were seized permanently by the Service.
In a statement from the Public Relations Officer of the FOU, Ikeja Command, Mr Jerry Attah, goods seized permanently include contraband with a duty paid value (DPV) of N1,295,600,724.95.
Other seizures in which the sum of N1,286,730,671.90 was recovered through DNs were those of general goods whose importers tried to beat the system from seaports, airport and border stations.
The owners of the goods were accused of various trade malpractices through wrong classification, transfer of value, and shortchange in duty payment.
The statement said that during the period under review, the Unit apprehended 95 suspects in connection with the seizures.
Other suspects were those in connection with 475 different seizures, comprising foreign parboiled rice, frozen poultry products, vegetable oil, smuggled vehicles, Indian hemp, arms, fake pharmaceutical/medicaments and various general merchandise.
The Controller, Mr Mohammed Uba Garba in the statement thanked the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) and the entire management team of the Service for their efforts in recognizing hard work and putting square pegs in square holes.
Uba said that without the management motivation and necessary logistic support, the success recorded by the Unit would have been difficult.
He also commended the officers and men of the FOU ‘A’ for their efforts in thwarting the antics of some dare devil smugglers who used different methods for concealment.
He charged all his officers to be professional and diligent in performing their statutory responsibilities particularly in the area of anti-smuggling operations.
He said this will check all revenue leakages, adding that smuggling was a global phenomenon, “which cannot be curbed entirely but can be brought to its barest minimum”.
He continued, “ This feat was not unconnected with the courtesy calls he paid to some key stakeholders most especially sister security agencies within our areas of jurisdiction comprising the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 81 Division, Nigerian Army, Lagos; Commander, 9 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Cantonment Ikeja; Commander, 35 Artillery, Nigerian Army, Alamala Barracks Abeokuta, Ogun State; Commissioners of Police, Ogun and Lagos State where he seeks for their continuous support and cooperation towards winning the war against smuggling”.
The Comptroller called on all the members of the fourth estate of the realm and the general public to continue the partnership with the Customs Service in the campaign against the evil of smuggling to the nation’s economy.