ABUJA: The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operation Unit Zone `A`, on Friday said it impounded vehicles and other contraband with Duty Paid Value (DPV) estimated at N360.19 million.
The Area Controller of the unit, Comptroller Mohammed Umar, announced this in a statement issued by the Zonal Public Relation Officer, Mr Uche Ejieseme, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. According to the statement, the unit made 268 different seizures and arrested 34 suspects.
The seizures include 3,374 bags of rice; 11,854 cartons of poultry products; 23 vehicles and 2,003 kegs of vegetable oil. Others are textile materials, foot wares, bags, used tyres, fridges, furniture, soap and detergents.
The statement added that a truck load of 1,198 fairly used tyres was intercepted by the controllers Monitoring Team `B` Idiroko Axis led by Assistant Controller Jatau Micah. The statement quoted the controller as saying “the command had raised the standard of its anti-smuggling campaign. “This is evident from the quantity of seizures made in recent times’’.
The comptroller was also quoted as saying that the unit had assisted Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) by sending food items to their camp. According to the controller, such food items donated are usually tested by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). The comptroller appealed to Nigerians to support the service in the fight against smugglers.
He reiterated that the unit would continue to deal decisively with smugglers no matter their sophistication. “The fight against smuggling is quite an enormous task and we have over the period re-engineered our operational modalities and tools to meet up with the emerging challenges,’’ Umar was quoted as saying in the statement.
