Hyacinth Chinweuba
The federal operations unit, FOU, zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service has announced a total of N2b seizures within six weeks. Comptroller Aliyu Mohammed of the Unit made the disclosure during a press briefing in Lagos where seizures made from February 6, 2019 to April 16 2019 were shown to newsmen.
The seizures includes 113 units of exotic vehicles with duty paid value of N1,339,088,544 and other seizures worth N610,470,320.
Mohammed also displayed various smuggled and prohibited drugs without National Agency for Food Drug Administration( NAFDAC) approved numbers.
The Comptroller of the Unit reiterated his resolve to sustain the fight against illicit drug smuggling as a way of justifying recent World Customs Organization (WCO) and NAFDAC Awards for his contributions to the fight against drug smuggling.
“I am ready to do more in the fight against fake and unregistered drugs. The award given to me is serving as a motivation to continue in stopping the illegality of drug smuggling.
” Some of the smuggled drugs concealed with other goods do not have NAFDAC number and they are capable of destroying lives.
“Our duty as Customs officers is not only to collect revenues and facilitate trade. We are working to save lives too. Those who are complaining about our presence on the roads are not sincere in their dealings.
”We make these seizures daily and we rely on intelligence to uncover what smugglers are hiding. On the allegations of harassment of smugglers by customs officers, our men work with information and endeavour not to inconvenience travelers while performing our duty.
“Our warehouse is filled with rice seizures and more are being seized. We encourage Nigerians to patronise our high quality locally grown rice ” he said.
Mohammed also displayed various seizures seized by it’s Unit to maritime journalists; such as trucks of rice valued at N190,961,320; 180 jericans of vegetable oil 25 liters worth N1,440,000; 157 bales of used clothes valued at N9,420,000; 200 cartons of frozen poultry products worth N1,400,000, 13810 bags of smuggled rice valued at N190,961,320, 12 percels of Indian hemp valued at N960,000, 24 pieces of used compressors valued at N360,000, 1000 sachets of tramadol valued at N250,000, 43 sacks of used shoes valued at N2,580,000, 600 cartons of codeine syrup valued at N240,000,000, 398 cartons of really extra (diclofe nac) valued at N15,920,000, 1056 cartons of chest and lungs tablet valued at N105,600,000, 49 cartons of paracetamol injection valued at N39,200,000, and 265 pieces of used tyres worth N1,855,000.
The Unit also seized 280 pieces of machetes valued at N462,000 and 62 cartons of tomato paste valued at N62,000.