NIGERIA: The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’, Owerri has seized prohibited goods with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N219,375,479. Mr.Dimka Victor David who displayed the items at the Customs warehouses in Owerri and Benin recently while briefing newsmen listed them as 1,920 cartons of banned mosquito coils with a DPV of N38,400,000. He said that the driver with his vehicle had since been arrested and might be prosecuted after necessary investigations are completed.
Another impounded item was 4,480 cartons of foreign Eva soap known in local parlance as “complexion care soap” with a DPV N23,655,720, stressing that it seized on September 11 along the Aba/Eleme axis.
He said the products could be dangerous to the skin as such smuggled items usually contain corrosive chemicals. “You see people, both men and women looking not yellow, but red and most of them is as a result of using such soap,” state.
The Customs Area Controller who condemned the use of soap manufactured without NAFDAC official registration numbers, disclosed that such 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 Mr. Dimka, were 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 six Toyota Hilux with DPV of N57,769,470 impounded on the Asaba/Benin expressway.
In his words “we have more often than not warned on the dangers of using second hand tyres because most of them, if not expired, they are discarded by the country of origin and Nigerians will import them and use same to kill human beings without listening to the words of reason from the government not to kill their brothers and sisters with something that is bad, the FRSC is in a better position to tell us how many lives have been lost on the roads as a result of the use of second hand tyres by motorists.”
He stressed the need for Nigerians to always comply with government regulations especially on those capable of sabotaging the nation’s economy like smuggling.
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 Col. (Rtd.) Hameed Ibrahim Ali to officials of the NAFDAC, Mrs. Esther Itua, the representative of the Director General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii.
Dimka described as quite unfortunate, appalling and absurd, a situation whereby people smuggle in fake drugs to kill their fellow human beings, and put the DPV of the offending drugs above #96,000,000.00, adding that the suspect involved in the shedy deal is now helping his men in their investigation.
Receiving the items, Mrs. Itua commended the NCS for the seizure made and attributed it to the strong ties and collaboration that have traditionally existed between the two organizations. She assured that the NAFDAC will continue to strengthen the existing synergy and corporation between her and the Customs in the fight against drug trafficking.
