Officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Adamawa State have seized a Dangote Group truck carrying 150 bags of smuggled rice.
Comptroller of Customs, Adamawa/Taraba command,Kamardeen Olumoh, paraded the truck before newsmen in Yola on Friday.
“One Dangote truck carrying one hundred and fifty bags of foreign rice was intercepted along Mayo-Belwa road on the last day of the year,” he stated.
“The driver escaped but we are sure that Dangote, being a responsible corporate entity, will identify and apprehend the driver and hand him over to us for prosecution.”
Comptroller Olumoh further disclosed other seizures made by the command, including rice, used clothing and petroleum products with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of over N59 million.
Giving a breakdown of seizures during the preceding year, he said: “The command was able to make sixty-one seizures, which were mainly foreign rice, totalling 1,740 bags.
Also seized were used vehicles, secondhand clothing and 21,270 litres of petroleum products with a DPV of N59,781,006.81.
“Three suspects are being tried in relation to the smuggling offences,” he said.
Olumoh however lamented that the command’s revenue generation for the year was below expectation, a development he blamed on insecurity and flooding within the command.
“The command generated N168,294,227.83 from January to December 2018 as against N186,113,181.28 generated in 2017.
“However, the amount fell short of the revenue target of N197,301,635.98 for the year in review.
“This can be attributed to challenges faced by officers and men of the command which include, the current state of insurgency in the region, sectarian situation in the Republic of Cameroon and recurring communal clashes in both Adamawa and Taraba states.”
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