The Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘A’ Ikeja of the Nigeria Customs Service said it intercepted various prohibited goods with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N101million in the month of September.
Similarly, the unit said it recovered N30million through interventions from vehicles and other goods that tried to beat the system from the seaports and border stations under the guise of false declaration, undervaluation and short change in duty payment
According to a statement by the unit’s spokesman, Jerome Attah, about 98 different seizures were recorded comprising vegetable oil, foreign parboiled rice, frozen poultry products, fairly used vehicles, and various general merchandise.
The breakdown of the seized goods include 2, 513 50kg foreign parboiled rice with a DPV of N16.3million; 3,778 cartons of frozen poultry products worth N20million; 528 Jerricans of vegetable oil with a DPV of N4.7million and 7 units of assorted vehicles with a DPV of N14million.
Others are general merchandise including new and used textiles material, shoes, bags, used tyres , Mosquito insecticide, soaps, compressors, Bonita Spaghetti amongst others.
Controller of the unit, Comptroller Umar Mohammed commended the courage and intelligence of the officers which he said led to the remarkable seizures and intervention in the month of September.
He stated that the Unit has what it takes in delivering one of the Service statutory functions of suppression of smuggling within his areas of jurisdiction in the South West zones.
The statement said the Controller has further tasked all field operatives of the Unit to intensify their border patrols in order to bring smugglers to book.
He warned smugglers who see ’ember’ months as a peak period for their nefarious acts to desist from such illegal business saying that the unit has deployed strategies that will make them run for their monies and count their loses.
He added that 14 suspects were also apprehended and will be charged to court for prosecution after thorough investigation.
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