By Oko Ebuka
The Comptroller General of Customs, CGC strike force, Zone ‘A’ of Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, has remitted over N118 million to the federation account between May 14, 2018 up till June 30, 2019.
The Zone during this period, made a total of 68 seizures of different kinds of contraband goods with Duty Paid Value, DPV of N118m, this is in tandem with the federal government’s quest to consolidate and create a booming market for the local manufacturers and producers in the country.
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The items seized by the zone include; 6,580 50kg bags of rice with DPV of N87.2m, 1,607 cartons of frozen poultry with DPV of N15.4m, 17 bales of second hand clothing with DPV of N1.2m, 2 vehicles with DPV of N2m and 292, 25 liters kegs of vegetable oil, with DPV of N12.2m.
In a press release statement disclosed by the Co-coordinator, CGC strike force, zone ‘A’, DC Yahaya, U.B, said that the seized items was the intense effort of the custom officers on parole whom were defiant to make sure the smuggling activities are permanently silenced.
According to him, “I commend my highly dedicated officers on field for not being deterred by the various antics and threat from smugglers and economic saboteurs in carrying out their duties to their fatherland.
“For the smugglers, I can only advise them to stay clear off zone ‘A’ and embrace federal government business policy, which they will have us to contend with in failure to do so. We shall continue to engage them in the battle against illicit trade until they turn new leaf.
“I want to use this opportunity to thank our CGC Col Hammed Ali and his management team for their support, as they have continue to give us moral boost as well as working tools which have so far made our job easy.”, he concluded.
In addition to the above mentioned seized items, the unit in confronting the unrepentant smugglers irrespective of their hide out or terrain, the team of eagle-eyed officers led by Chief Superintendent of Customs ( CSC) Esiet while combing the creek along Lagos-Badagry through a reliable information, intercepted and seized five (5) trucks fully loaded with contraband foreign rice (50kg each).
The operation was carried out along Alibaba Street at Iyana-Sash waterside in Agbara-Badagry Axis on June 30, 2019 and the total bags of rice in them after counting is 981, aside 140 that is bad as it drenched.
The registration numbers of the trucks include AGL665XL, AAA534DU, GGE427XU and LXR27XV, while most of the trucks were reconstructed and reinforced to withstand pressure, with the capacity to convey large quantities of smuggled goods and easily access the marshy terrain.
Similarly, the unit made another set of contraband rice seizures involving two (2) mini trucks that conveyed a total of 543 bags of 50kg of the products on the 3rd of July 2019.
However, the total number of seized rice from the seven (7) trucks is 1,524 with N20.1m of Duty Paid Value, DPV.