*Customs personnel displaying some of the seized contraband goods
…Impounds Vehicles For Smuggling Frozen Poultry Products In Ogun
The Federal Operations Unit(FOU) of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it has intercepted contraband worth N12.7 billion between January to April 2020.
This is just as the unit also disclosed that it intercepted a vehicle with COVID-19 sticker used to smuggled frozen chicken into the country.
FOU is an anti-smuggling arm of the service saddled with the responsibility of suppressing smuggling activities in the six states of the South-West.
The Customs Area Controller (CAC)of the unit, Usman Yahaya disclosed this while speaking on the activities of the Command in the last four months.
The CAC said contraband worth N12.7 billion were intercepted from smugglers between January to April 2020
According to him, the unit also paid a whopping N1.14 billion into the Treasury Single Account of the federal government from Debit Note (DN) on intercepted containers from Lagos seaport, voluntary payment of Customs duty on vehicles, auction sales from PMS among others
Giving a breakdown of the seizures, he said 25 units of fairly used vehicles worth N108 million, 5,644 cartons of frozen chicken worth N54.1million were intercepted, 9,843 bags of 50kg smuggled parboiled rice worth N130.4 million and sacks of textile materials worth N94million were seized in the month under review.
Others are, N14million worth of used tyre, 3,764 kegs of smuggled vegetables oil worth N69.2 million, 8,365 litres of smuggled petrol also known as (PMS) and AGO also known as Diesel worth N35million.
According to the CAC, “We won’t relent on our anti-smuggling fight especially at this time the government is preaching diversification into the agric sector due to the fall in price of oil in the international market which has affected government revenue base.”
“We will ensure that smuggling is reduced to the nearest minimum and not allow festering as that could be injurious to our economy and wellbeing as a country,” he added.
The Public Relations Officer Relations Officer of the unit, Jerry Attah, in a statement said the officers intercepted the vehicle under the guise of essential duty smuggling cartons of smuggled frozen chicken into the country from Benin Republic.
Attah quoted the CAC as saying that the vehicle was arrested on Ijebu Ode Expressway and that they were intercepted based on intelligence and the alertness of the officers, who were on routine patrol on that axis.
“The officers were professional enough to intercept the vehicle which was believed to be used in the movement of essential commodities but was surprise to see that it was used for illegal activities such as movement of contraband.
“We have arrested the vehicle and investigation has commenced to get to the root and unravel other atrocities that may have been committed using the essential duty tag,” the CAC said.
