The Nigeria Customs Service Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, said on Friday that it stopped three trucks heading to the Republic of Benin with 880 bags of white beans, 584 bags of onions and 18 bags of dry pepper at Ajilete/Idiroko road in Ogun state.
Controller of the Zone, Comptroller Hussein Ejibunu, said that instead of seizing the food items, the unit redirected the trucks to Nigerian markets “where they were sold to Nigerians by the owners”.
The customs anti-smuggling unit also raised concerns that smugglers have devised a devious scheme of smuggling foreign parboiled rice in petroleum jerry cans, as the unit intercepted some along Ajilete in Ogun state. He said the act is not only illegal but also exposes potential consumers to the risk of eating contaminated grains that have mixed with poisonous properties from petroleum products.
Giving a breakdown of activities of the unit in February 2024, Ejibunu said a total number of 93 seizures were made, while nine suspects were arrested for various offences.
“The seizures made are worth a total duty paid value of N751.1million. We also prevented the smuggling of eleven exotic used vehicles worth over N200 million into the country through our area of responsibility. Smugglers of these vehicles met our stiff resistance against their duty evasion and deviant behaviour.
“The sum of N78.1million was recovered as revenue into the federation account through the issuance of demand notices on Customs duties that were discovered to be underpaid.
“As usual, rice was top on the list of our February 2024 seizures in terms of volume and value. A total of 3,779 units of 50kg bags of suspected foreign rice equivalent to over seven trailer loads worth over N365 million were seized from various parts of the South West.
“Other items seized in the month under review include one locally made gun and six pieces of empty cartridges on Abeokuta road; 731 parcels of Indian hemp weighing 482kg; a 40ft container found to contain 286 cartons of new rubber slippers; seven units of used motorcycles; 28,000 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) and 2,420 pieces of used tyres,” Ejibunu said.