ABUJA: Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has continued to beam its search light on the activities of die- hard smugglers and their collaborators as it has impounded fake drugs and other contraband goods with Duty Paid Value, DPV, of over N219 million. The seizure was made by the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone ‘C’, Owerri.
Briefing newsmen at the customs warehouses at both Owerri and Benin, Customs Area Controller of the unit, Comptroller Dimka Victor David, listed the items to include 1,920 cartons of banned mosquito coils with a duty paid value of N38,400,000.
He said that the driver with his vehicle had been arrested and would be prosecuted after necessary investigation.
According to him, 4,480 cartons of foreign Eva soap known in local parlance as “complexion care soap” with a DPV of N23,655,720 was also seized on the Aba/Eleme axis even as he frowned at the type of chemicals used in manufacturing the soap.
The Customs Area Controller who condemned the use of soap manufactured without NAFDAC official registration numbers, disclosed that these products usually find their way into the country with Chinese language written on the leaflets, and warned that any consumable item manufactured within or outside the country must not only bear English inscriptions, but also the country of origin, manufacturing and expiration dates.
Other items impounded by the unit according to Dimka, include 596 pieces of used tyres on the Owerri Port-Harcourt axis with a DPV of N3,439,729, a truck load of 714 various brands of fake drugs on the Benin express way without NAFDAC registration numbers, manufacturing and expiring dates, as well as brand new six Toyota Hilux with DPV of N57,769,470 impounded on the Asaba/Benin expressway.
He stressed the need for Nigerians to always comply with government regulations especially on those activities like smuggling capable of sabotaging the nation’s economy.
While urging Nigerians to join hands with the NCS in the war against smuggling in line with persistent calls by the establishment, NAFDAC, and the Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON, Dimka handed over the seized items on behalf of the Comptroller-General of Customs Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) to officials of the NAFDAC, Mrs. Esther Itua, who represented of the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii.
