Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has impounded contraband goods with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N572.1 million Controller of the unit, Comptroller Umar Dahiru has revealed.
According to Dahiru, The seized items include: frozen poultry products, foreign parboiled rice, vehicles, vegetable oil, trucks of unprocessed teak woods and other general merchandise,”
The controller gave the breakdown as: 4,911 bags of rice; 15,048 cartons of imported frozen products; 1,884 kegs of vegetable oil; 17 trucks of unprocessed teak woods; and an unspecified number of general merchandise.
He said that the latest onslaught came against the backdrop of the recent directive on the ban on rice importation through the land borders.
The controller disclosed that three brand new Toyota Prado Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV’s) were also intercepted during the period.
Dahiru said that importation of rice was only restricted for now to the seaports and warned rice importers to adhere strictly to the latest policy or be ready to face the full wrath of the law.
“In the area of logistic support, I would like to appreciate the Comptroller-General of Customs, Retired Col. Hameed Ali and the management for providing necessary equipment which had enabled the service to deal with smuggling,’’ he said.
On trade facilitation, the controller said that the nation was a signatory to the ECOWAS treaty on trade liberalisation and could not afford to go contrary to the letter and spirit of the treaty.
“The service is a compliant organisation and we are determined to deliver services in line with World Customs Organisation (WCO) standards, because we are key elements of the WCO,’’ Dahiru said.