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Mohammed Uba- Comptroller- Photo credit- Maritime First Newspaper
The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said on Wednesday in Lagos, that it has through its reinvigorated anti-smuggling operations in the last four weeks, saved over N1.4 billion for the Federal Government.
The Command said it recovered revenue from the interception of various contraband goods and vehicles with duty paid value of (DPV) of N1,345,572,313 while a total of N59,506,773.25 was recovered from underpayment of duties at the ports and border stations by dubious importers whose intention was to short-change government.
Mohammed Uba, who disclosed this to newsmen in his office on Wednesday, listed the seized items to include 15 exotic vehicles including three Toyota C-HR; one Toyota Camry LE; one Toyota Prado; one Toyota Hilux; one Ford F150; one Pajero Jeep; one Mercedes Benz and among others.
According to him, the command also intercepted about 9,049 bags of foreign parboiled rice amounting to 15 trailer loads of rice; 1,464 cartons of frozen poultry products; 870 jerry cans of vegetable oil; 273 bales of used clothing; 592 pieces of used tyres and among other smuggled items.
Uba further stated that the command also seized four containers with the numbers: PCIU850134/9; PCIU8278544; FCIU983753 and TGHU6924330 for false declaration of cargo content.
“While two of the containers were carrying 8,633 pieces of empty cylinders as against plumbing materials declared in their SDG, the other two carried 120 bales of new jeans as against pumping machine declared in the SDG,” he said.
He further disclosed that a total of 12 suspects were arrested in connection with the 112 seizures recorded by the command within the period under review.
“To ensure full implementation of the Federal Government policy on rice importation, we re-strategised and beamed searchlight on the Creek, waterside and various locations in the Southwest, which resulted to the massive rice seizure in the past four weeks. However, we will ensure that smugglers within the zone count their losses until they repent from sabotaging the economy,” Uba added.
