The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it seized items worth N1.6 billion due to various infractions within the month of January, 2018.
The Unit also said it recovered the sum of N91.366 million within the period making a cumulative of N1.709 billion.
Addressing newsmen in Lagos on Tuesday, Controller of the Unit, Comptroller Uba Mohammed said among the seized items are 31 exotic cars which include four Rolls Royce, 1 Porche Panamera, 1 Jaguar, 1 Bentley, 2Lexus jeep, 2G Wagon, 1Toyota Land Cruiser, 5 Toyota Corolla, 7 Mercedes Benz among others mostly 2017 models.
According to Mohammed, the duty paid value of the vehicles is worth N1.4 billion.
He said some of the cars were intercepted along Ijebu Ode road while some others were carted from private facilities as empowered by section 147of CEMA Cap 45 laws of the federation of Nigeria.
Other items seized within the period include 8,400 bags if foreign parboiled rice with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N1.4 billion; 835 jerry cans of vegetable oil with DPV of N4 million.
10 sacks bags of Indian hemp, 2,208 pieces of used tyres, 159 bales of used clothing, imported used compressors all with a DPV of N23.6 million.
The Controller added that a 20 feet container was intercepted for false declaration saying the container was carrying 537 cartons of Indian Hemp Whisky declared as yeast.
Another 1×40 container was seized for carrying 60 pieces of used Chest freezers and 570 bundles of gas hose as against condenser for steam polysonic amounting to false declaration.
Uba however urged the vehicles owners to come forward with valid customs clearance documents, failure which he said the cars would be liable to seizure and forfeited to the federal government.
He said, “Let me seize this opportunity to warn all would-be smugglers to desist from any act of illegal trade and invest their money in a legitimate business that will yield dividend on their investments.
“There is no amount of resistance from the smugglers and their mob accomplices that will deter us from performing our statutory responsibilities in all aspects especially in suppression of smuggling within southwest zone.”