CUSTOMS: A cross-border car smuggling syndicate has forfeited hundreds of exotic cars to the Ogun Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service for allegedly bringing them in illegally from neighbouring Benin Republic.
The vehicles were seized during a massive raid at the border town of Idiroko,Ogun State. Also impounded during the raid were cartons of frozen turkey and dozens of motorcycles used by rice smugglers. Spokesman for the command, Abubakar Usman said the operation was made possible by ” the vigilance of our men who took proactive measures to contain the errant smugglers.”
Usman said the smugglers resorted to firing at the Customs men once they were intercepted but could not match the superior firepower of the law enforcement officers.“Many of the vehicles you are seeing here were intercepted from the notorious syndicate who resisted our men. They were overpowered and had to flee abandoning the vehicles,” he said.
”We also seized many motorcycles from rice smugglers, and cartons of turkey from illicit traders who tried to bring them from the Benin Republic into our territory through the bush .” The command said it generated N3,401,647,417.34 as revenue in the first half of this year as against the N2,543,266,323.43 it realized within the corresponding period in 2014.
“Our command was able to record 515 seizures with Duty Paid Value(DPV) of N445,399,838.00; as against 733 seizures with DPV of N880,002,012.00 same period in 2014.The difference is 218 seizures with DPV of N434,602,174.00,” he said.
He added:“the formidable mechanism put in place by the Customs Area Controller, Mr. Haruna Mahmud, to curtail the menace of smuggling activities in the area led to the successes recorded so far.”
