By Anthony Nwachukwu
Items with different trade infractions, including contrabands, with approximate Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N746.2 million were impounded by the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in April 2023.
Announcing this to newsmen in Lagos Thursday, Compt. Hussein Ejibunu disclosed that in further boost to its anti-smuggling campaign, the unit, through the Federal High Court, secured the conviction of eight suspects in the past 10 months.
Aside that, 48 other cases are at various stages of prosecution, while 10 new suspects have been arrested in connection with the current seizures, he said.
The unit also recovered the sum of N66.7 million through demand notices on under-valuation, under-payments and wrong classifications.
The current seizures included 8,309x50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice (equivalent to 14 trailer-loads), and 2,428×25 liters of premium motor spirit (PMS).
There were also 221 cartons of foreign frozen poultry products, 486 parcels (262kg) of Indian hemp, four foreign used vehicles, 111 pieces of used tyres, 10 bales of used clothing and eight sacks of used shoes.
Explaining the unit’s current anti-smuggling successes, Ejibunu said: “While the smugglers planned to take us unawares during the religious festivities, our round-the-clock patrols were sustained and backed with intelligence even during the public holidays.
“Interestingly, the outcome of our unrelenting onslaught against smuggling is the remarkable drop evident in the number of seizures recorded with zero casualties.”
Meanwhile, “we want to reiterate that it pays for importers, exporters, haulage operators and their agents to operate within the ambit of the law because doing otherwise places them at risk of losing their investments and facing prosecution as enshrined in the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA).”
He further attributed the successes recorded in the suppression of desperate measures of economic criminality to the deployment of logistics support from the customs management towards protecting the nation’s economic interest.
