Operatives of Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service has recorded seizures of various items illegally brought into the country in the month of August 2022.
Addressing newsmen at the Unit headquarters in Ikeja , Lagos the Acting Controller of the Unit, Hussein K. Ejibunu disclosed that the Unit adoption of constantly reworked strategies in handling their obligations provides them the edge over the saboutuers and their game of concealment, false declaration and under payment of duties.
Ejibunu gave the list of items seized to include 1 x 40ft container of flavour seasoning, falsely declared as auto spare parts, 1 x 40ft container of auto interior accessories, falsely declared as filters/pneumatic transmission,
1 X 40ft container of vegetable oil and foreign parboiled rice, falsely declared as used vehicles and 1 x 20ft container of 21 pallets of tiles, falsely declared as PVC floor tiles/floor bricks.
Others are 1 x 20ft container of Padi Bitters, falsely declared as olive nuts, 1 x 20ft container of unprocessed wood, falsely declared as aluminum ingots, 1 x 20ft container of bales of used clothes and shoes, with a used fake seal/Dangote Truck, 20 drums of Carbide without an End User Certificate, 5,593 (50kg) bags of foreign parboiled rice an equivalent of 9 trailer truck load, 56,725 litres of premium motor spirit, 375 bales of used clothes, 242 parcels of Marijuana, 41 pieces of military camouflage bags, 11 used imported cars (Tokunbo) and 29 motorcycles.
The most critical item among the seizures is 20 drums of Carbide, a chemical material used in the manufacturing of improvised explosives devices simply known as IEDs.
The anti-smuggling Czar said ” This chemical when in contact with other chemicals, water or moisture becomes reactive and could cause serious damage and it also causes some health challenges. Importation of this particular material as with others of such nature is strictly controlled by the office of the national security adviser and therefore requires an end user certificate when imported, but notably, the certificate has not been procured in this case”.
The Unit boss disclosed that the duty paid value (DPV) of the seized goods is Five Hundred and Seventy- nine Million, Four Hundred and Twelve Thousand, Five Hundred and Fourty-nine Naira (N579,412,549).
He added that the sum of Fourty-six Million, Two Hundred and Ninety-eight Thousand, Four Hundred and Twenty-two Naira, Fifty Kobo (N46,298,422.50) was recovered from undervalued and under declared goods.
Appreciating the CGC, Col. Hammed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd), his men and all those who make his job easier by way of credible information and cooperation he hinted that smuggled items violate the provisions of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) CAP C45 LFN 2004.
He however retreiate the unit obligation to continually make life unbearable for smugglers and any act of economic sabotage.
