The Nigeria Customs Service, Area ll Command Onne Port, Rivers State says it has recorded a total of N78,167,080,299.21 as revenue generated from January to June 2021.The amount is N31.5 billion above the N46,661,656,918.3 collected between January and June of 2020, which is an increase of 67.52% of the Command’s revenue.
According to a press release issued by the Command Public Relations Officer, Ifeoma Onuigbo Ojekwu, the revenue generation, strict enforcement of fiscal policies, uncompromising implementation of government directives and diligent trade facilitation are among strategies put in place by Comptroller Auwal Mohammed, the Customs Area Controller of the command.
“Aside the above stated improvement in comparative mid-year revenue generation between 2020 and 2021, the Command also made some other very laudable feats in exports and anti-smuggling activities. In the month of June 2020, the Command generated the sum of N14,552,562,033.70 which is an unprecedented feat in our history as an area Command.”
The export statistics of the Command shows that good worth N52.6 billion have been exported through the Onne port between January to June, 2021. These exports includes sesame seeds, ginger, cocoa beans, hibiscus, fluorite ore, lead ore, palm kernel shell, cotton, float glass, aluminium ingot etc, worth NESS value of N260,150,300.13. The total tonnage of the said export stood at 331.356.39 tonnes with Free On Board (FOB) value of $137,943,276.32.
The Command made 19 seizures totalling N8,299,061,138.00 as Duty Paid Value (DPV). The key among the seizures was over N3.7 billion worth of 1,387 cartons of tramadol in a single seizure with 1000 cartons of tiles used to conceal the Tramadol made in May, 2021.
Other seizures made by the command within the period includes two units of used Mitsubishi buses; 210 bales of second hand clothing; 4,029 pieces of used tyres ; 16 units of used engine gear box and auto spare parts. Others are 310 pallets of laser ketchup; 2,721 bags of 50kg foreign rice; 37 cartons of wine; 124 cartons of tapentadol; 956 Jerrycans of 25litres of vegetable oil; 750 cartons of supergold candle; 2,970 cartons of foreign soap; 89 bales of fabrics and 500 cartons of medicaments.
“So far, four suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures and are at various stages of investigation and prosecution in courts of competent jurisdiction.
” The Area Controller emphasised that at various meetings with the Command management team and parade involving all officers that the Command will remain unrelenting and uncompromising in diligently examining every cargo that goes through the port. This is in line with the Comptroller General of Customs zero tolerance for infractions.
Comptroller Mohammed said during a recent meeting that: ” Area ll Command, Onne Port will remain a no go area for perpetrators of any trade malpractices. We will keep doing our best in ensuring that all import and export cargoes are duly examined.
“The long arms of the law will not spare any importer, exporter or trader who dares our resolve by perpetrating illegalities in Onne Port. We have demonstrated this in the first half of the year and will continue to improve on our recorded milestones.
“I am calling on all importers and agents to imbibe the spirit of true and proper declaration, while thanking all my officers for their teamwork and integrity driven performance, I will also like to thank our compliant traders using Onne Port to keep up the good work” the CAC said.
