- Seizes ₦501m worth of contraband goods
By Anthony Nwachukwu
A two-man syndicate that specialises in forging Customs clearing documents, as well as 16 other smuggling suspects have been arrested by the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The unit also recovered the sum of N103.6 million through demand notices on under-valuation, under-payments and wrong classification, and seized contraband goods with an approximate Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N501 million, all in February 2023.
Addressing newsmen at the FOU headquarters in Lagos Tuesday on the unit’s anti-smuggling campaign in February, Ag. Compt. Hussein Ejibunu said that the unit was at different stages of investigation and prosecution of the suspects.
He disclosed that investigations after the arrest of one Shuaibu Kolo, with a Mercedes Benz (2007 Model) along Ajilete-Idiroko Road in Ogun State, revealed “over 600 pictures of vehicles domiciled.”
According to Ejibunu, they were domiciled in Benin Republic “waiting to undergo forged clearing process by the same criminal syndicate.”
Following subsequent investigation, however, the operatives recovered from the suspects items like fake customs valuation stamp, fake customs duty chart book on vehicles, fake customs and vehicle registration documents, four computer monitors, three computer processing units, a keyboard and a printer.
Ejibunu further listed a one-legged charm man, reportedly among the smugglers who attacked officers with charms at Owoyele Igbogila Road in Ogun State, among the suspects arrested.
Contrabands seized included 5,328 x 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice, 1 x 40ft container with 512 cartons of generators (detained for false declaration), and 1 x 40ft container with 2,298 cartons of half gasoline engines (detained for false declaration).
Others were 29,875 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), 283 cartons of foreign frozen poultry products, 75kg of cannabis sativa, five units of foreign used vehicles and 1 x 40ft container of export-bound charcoal.
Meanwhile, Ejibunu has described smuggling as having “very significant negative impact on our economy. These include loss of revenue, distortion of market prices and collapse of local industries. Thus, all patriotic citizens are to join the fight against economic sabotage.
It is “an unpatriotic activity that involves the importation or exportation of goods through unlawful means, with the objective to evade or underpay customs duties, taxes and any other measure of prohibition or restrictions on the importation or exportation of such goods.”
It “has an extensive menace on the economy that has continued to impact on activities of locally manufactured goods. It also encourages acts of criminality in the society.”
Citing the CEMA, he listed smuggling to include outright avoidance of customs official control across the ports and borders, under-declaration and under-valuation of goods, wrong classification of goods, and falsification of customs documents, all with the intention to evade or reduce duties and tax, among others.
