The Seme Border Command of Nigeria Customs Service said it has generated the sum of N4 billion in the first half of 2019 and has also been surpassing its monthly revenue target for the last three months amidst various seizures of contraband items.
The Customs Area Controller of the Command, Comptroller Mohammed Garba, made this known on Monday at a press briefing in Seme.
Comptroller Uba who explained that the amount generated represented about 64 per cent of the annual target allotted the command also dijosed that various seizures were made by the unrelenting officers and men of his command.
The seized items according to the command boss are said to include women hair, table waters, expired ginger drinks and foreign parboiled rice.
7,524 foreign table water valued at N1.7 million, 83 cartons of Amira/Makoko soap, worth 1.8 million, 1,718 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice, 26 bales of used clothes of N918,000, 14 cartons of Nitro faminne soap worth N169,000.
Other seized items includes 13 bags of expired rice worth N54,000, eight sacks of used shoes worth 98,000, 65 pieces of six yards textile worth N63,000, 11 cartons of insecticide worth 13,000.
Also among the seizures are 864 of 30 litters cans of sulphuric acid worth N3.5 million, two sacks of rubber slippers worth N38,000 and two cartons of lemon cream worth N77,000 including 16 bags of rice worth N8000 at Gbaji axis on Monday.
Uba stated the benefit that the country will derived from the inter-connectivity between Nigerian and the Republic of Benin inaugurated on June 20 by the Comproller-General of Customs, Retired Col. Hameed Ali.
He called on the Benin counterparts to respect the International law guiding the transfer of cargo from one customs administration to another.
Comptroller Uba added that over the years, transit provisions have been codified by a number of international Conventions.
“This are the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Kyoto Convention and the 1982 Geneva Convention of the harmonisation of frontier control of goods.”
He said that the Article V of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) provides the freedom of transit.
He also said it determines that “there shall be freedom of transit through the territory of each contracting party, via the routes most convenient for international transit for traffic in transit.
He affirmed the command continuous seizures until the right signal is achieved to discourage other people from indulging in the smuggling.
Uba added that a total of 37 vehicles had been released to successful bidders of the auctions vehicles domiciled at the command.
He however, urged the general public to be vigilant against internet fraudsters who prey on unsuspecting members of public with the intention to dupe them with tricks of auction of seized goods.
He advised freight forwarder to desist from acts that is against the law while urging members of the public to stop consuming smuggled goods as it is dangerous to their health.
In his response, the Seme Coordinator of NAFDAC official, Dr Nurudeen Audu, said import and export of water remained banned.
Audu said that the agency would take the liquid to the laboratory in Oshodi to ascertain the efficacy of the content in the bottle.
He said that sulphuric acid was restricted by NAFDAC, adding that before one could import and clear the sulphuric acid, National Security Agency would issue permit as well as end users certificate.
Audu said that the certificate of the import had expired since 2015 but the owner still smuggle the products into the country.
He noted that luck ran against him as customs intercepted him through joint examination.
