ASBUJA: The Nigerian Customs, Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’, an anti-smuggling arm in Owerri, recorded over 363 seizures, who were illegally importing items with Duty paid Value (DPV) of N1.805 billion last year.
The unit also recovered N71,762,029 from various under payments intended to rob the Federal Government of its revenues. The seizures made and underpayment sum up to N1.877 billion for the year 2014.
The Area Controller of the unit, Dimka Victor David, who made the disclosure at the 2014 year review said last year’s seizure figure was higher than that of 2013, which stood at 1999.
He said a total of 104 arrests were made, with four persons convicted, adding that 134 cases were pending.
“Within the year under review, four persons were convicted and that to us is good and it is also in contrast to that of 31 arrests recorded in the year 2013 with 20 cases in court.
Giving details of the summary of seizures recorded, Dimka disclosed that vehicles alone topped the list of the items totaling 237, of which 209 vehicles were with fake documents while 28 were abandoned. The highest numbers of seizures were recorded in April, September and December apparently due to increased desperation of the smugglers during the months, just as the highest DPV were made in the months of April and September precisely.
He acknowledged the continued invaluable support and encouragement of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde, which he said has spurred, motivated and encouraged officers of the service in the discharge of their anti-smuggling activities which has culminated in the harvest of seizures recorded in 2014.
He also assured that intensive and aggressive patrol operations would be carried out to ensure absolute compliance to laws to nip the activities of smugglers in the bud in 2015. He called on Nigerians to always avail the unit with relevant information that could lead to tracking of smugglers while also promising that the identity of such patriotic informants would be treated with utmost confidentiality.
He advised those still engaging in the acts of smuggling to have a rethink as the service has no sympathy for such unpatriotic act and promised that genuine importers or their agents will continue to enjoy the support and benevolence of the NCS in line with their mandate to facilitate legitimate trade.
