Hyacinth Chinweuba
The Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Ikeja, Lagos, last week Wednesday announced seizures totaling N1.103bn for the month of February.
Among the intercepted goods were 18 assorted vehicles, 4,201 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 2,619 cartons of frozen poultry products, 1,105 jerrycans of vegetable oil, 2,637 pieces of used tyres, 1,333 used clothings, 2,001 pangolin and 343 kg of elephant tusks.
The seized cars were one Rolls Royce, 1 Chrysler, 1 Audi Q7, Land Rover and other vehicles ranging from 2008 to 2015 model.
The Customs Controller, Mr Mohammed Uba told newsmen that some of the vehicles were intercepted along Ijebu Ode Expressway while others were evacuated from a car mart located in Lekki.
Uba said that the 55 pangoline shell weighing 2001kg were valued at N408.3million while 218 elephant tusks were valued at N85.1million.
He frowned at a situation in which some people were killing elephants and trading on the tusks, adding that this was against international convention.
He said the customs administration globally protects wild life by intercepting illegal trade on such animals.
The Customs Controller handed over the seized pangolin and elephant tusks to officials of Nigeria Environment Standards and Regulatory Enforcement Agency (NESREA) for further investigation and necessary action.
Lagos Coordinator of NESREA, Mr Nosa Aigbedion who was at the Customs Ikeja Warehouse to receive the seized items promised to continue necessary action on the issue.
He said the NESREA will prosecute the suspects involved in the illegal trade.
Uba also disclosed that the Customs Unit seized a 20ft container for false declaration, adding that 17 suspects were arrested in connection with 90 seizures.
Among the suspects was a Chinese national, Mr Ko Sin Ying.
He added that the Unit recovered N67.9million from demand notices (DN) raised on goods intercepted from those who attempted to defraud the government through under declaration.