The Seme border area command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has handed over two suspects arrested for allegedly possessing illicit substances to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
According to a press statement by the Public Relations Officer of the command, Selechang Taupyen, the suspects were arrested by officers of the command on information patrol along Lagos – Badagry expressway on May 4th, 2017.
Taupyen stated that the accosted suspects were in possession of some illicit substances which includes; four wraps of Indian hemp, one pack of rizzler, five cartons of amoria mixture and three SWAN packets all suspected to be illicit substances.
Speaking during the handover ceremony, Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Mohammed Aliyu said that the Service being the lead agency would continue to exemplify and inculcate the spirit of synergy and inter-agency co-operation among relevant agencies at the land border.
He re-stated that NCS would continue to perform among others, the statutory role of securing the nation’s busiest land border from trans-border crimes that ranges from smuggling, drug trafficking, human trafficking among others.
The Customs helmsman also re-iterated the need for officers and men of the command under his watch to ensure that in discharging their statutory functions, legitimate trade was facilitated to generate maximum revenue, while aggressive anti-smuggling operation must be enhanced to enforce compliance level to government fiscal policies.
On the low revenue generated in the month of April, 2017 which amounted to a total of N234million, the CAC attributed what he described as an unfortunate development to the persistent low level of economic activities despite the effort of the command to create a conducive and an enabling trading environment for every legitimate trade.
He said that the command has taken proactive measures to eliminate all barriers that serve as impediments to effective trade facilitation viz-a-viz the ECOWAS protocol along the Lagos-Abdijan corridor.
The customs boss also said some operational structures have been collapsed along the busy land border.
The Controller, who occasionally monitors the mode of operation of officers under his jurisdiction by way of uninformed visit, also enjoined the field officers to ensure that total compliance to the service extant laws is the hall mark while engaging in anti-smuggling operations.
He disclosed further that in order to ensure the standardization of trade facilitation and protect the territorial integrity of the country, all incoming transport vehicles with particular emphasis on luxury buses must be subjected to scanning procedure as it was done with trucks and containers.
Commenting on the trapped vehicles that could not meet the dateline of the policy pronouncement of the Federal government , he charged the committee to ensure proper documents verification and authentication of duty payment of each vehicle trapped in the Customs vehicle seat before release. He warned that smugglers must not take advantage of the exercise as the numbers of the trapped vehicles in Customs custody was known to the Command.
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