ABUJA: Nigeria Customs Service in Oyo and Osun state has generated a whooping sum of N5, 898,773,058.56 within the last four months, the Customs Area Controller for the Command, Mr. Mohammed Suleiman Bawa has disclosed.
Addressing reporters in Ibadan shortly before carrying out the destruction of 120 cartons of imported frozen products impounded by the Command, Bawa disclosed that a total of 92 seizures with eight suspects were taken into custody during the period under review while the Duty Paid Value of the seizures amounted to N218.5million.
He assured that “operatives of the Command will continue to intensify efforts at keeping the smugglers, especially of imported poultry products out of business while those caught will be made to face the full wrath of the law”.
Bawa who took over the Oyo/Osun Area Command in March charged members of the public to support Government’s ongoing war against importation of imported frozen poultry products which, he said, apart from being injurious to health are also crippling local economy.
He declared pointedly that the Command has already launched the Operation “Hawk Descend” for surveillance and arrest of foreign poultry parts with zero tolerance on quantity.
He further added that the awareness campaign for duty payment on imported vehicles is yielding positive dividends in the Command area “as vehicle owners are now coming to pay duty to make peace with government to the extent that this source is becoming a noticeable duty platform.”
In this regard, he said, a total of N102.58million was realized. Encouraged by this, the Headquarters has proposed to set up another Customs Processing Centre (CPC) at either Odo or Ayegun border point around Saki, he stated.
The Customs Area Controller also spoke on the efforts of the Command in checkmating the fraudulent activities of Internet fraudsters and called for greater collaborative activities from the public in this regard.
