LAGOS: No fewer than 56 persons suspected to be smugglers are in the net of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for their alleged roles in the smuggling of prohibited items popularly called contraband into the country. In the same vein, 56 cases are pending court in connection with the seizures of items in the first quarter of the year.
These were disclosed by the Customs Area Controller (CAC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘C’, Owerri, Imo State, Mr. Victor Dimka, while unfolding what he called the “giant strides” recorded by the unit for the first quarter of the year.
Giving an insight of the seizures made during the period under review in the Imo State capital, Owerri, the CAC said the unit recorded a total of 140 seizures with a duty paid value (DPV) of N501 million.
According to Dimka, 37 seizures were made in January with a DPV of N176.4 million; 40 seizures with a DPV of N136.7 million in February; and 63 seizures with a DPV of N187.8 million in March 2015.
The items seized in January and February include 108 vehicles; three trucks laden with 384 bags of 50kg foreign rice; two trucks of containing 2,126 cartons of imported frozen poultry products; and three trucks of loaded with 1,181 pieces of used tyres popularly called tokunbo.
Others are three trucks containing 780 bales of textile materials as well as two truckloads of cartons of foreign vegetable oil with other items such as used hand bags, cartons of foreign beverages and 1,755 pieces of imported foot wears.
He revealed that the seizures made in March comprised a total of 51 vehicles, 184 pieces of used tyres, 284 (50kg) bags of foreign rice, 1,755 pieces of used foot wears, 10 cartons of foreign beverages, and a truck loaded with 1,500 cartons of imported frozen poultry products.
Dimka used the occasion to reiterate the determination of his men and officers to rid the country of the menace of smuggling.
He disclosed that a total of 56 suspects arrested in connection with the seizures are now cooling their heels in detention while investigations had commenced in earnest.
The Customs Chief assured that those found guilty will be made to face the full weight of the law to serve as deterrent to others who may want to take smuggling as a way of life.
He also warned those still trapped in the illegal business of smuggling to desist from it in their own interest, stating that the NCS under the leadership of the Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Inde Dikko Abdullahi who recently gave the unit 20 new pick up vehicles and other logistics is now better equipped, trained and sophisticated to dislodge smugglers wherever they choose to operate in Zone C.
Dimka enjoined members of the public with useful information about smuggling to always make them available to his men for necessary action, even as he assured that such classified information would be treated with what he described as “utmost confidentiality”.
