Customs FOU intercepts contraband valued N1.03b within 25 days

The Federal Operations Units Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service says it has intercepted various contraband with a Duty Paid Value worth N1.03 billion.
The Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Mohammed Uba, who disclosed this to newsmen in Lagos on Wednesday, said the items were seized within 25 days.
According to him, the seizures are 30 exotic vehicles, including seven 2018 model of Toyota Hilux; three Toyota Prado Jeep, 2017 model, Range Rover and Ford Edge of 2015 model, among others.
Uba said: “The command also intercepted 5,516 bags of foreign parboiled rice in nine trailers; 1, 078 cartoons of frozen poultry products and 216 jerry cans of vegetable oil.
“Others are: 173 bales of used clothes, 683 pieces of used tyres and eight sacks of Indian hemp weighing 134kg, among others.
“The command also seized two 40ft-container due to false declaration with DPV of over N25 million.”
He said that seizures were made from April 10 to May 15.
He told newsmen that 14 suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures, while the Indian hemp would be handed over the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency for further investigation.
He said: “In the same vein, the unit through interventions recovered N28.86 million cash, bringing the total value of items seized between April 10 and May 15 to N1.03 billion.”
The comptroller commended the officers and men of the unit for living up to their statutory responsibilities in suppressing smuggling in the zone.
He said some of the seized items had been moved to Internally Displaced Persons centres under the supervision of the Presidential Committee on IDPs chaired by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Retired Col. Hameed Ali.
He said: “Some of the approved items to IDPs centres in Borno are 25,318 bags of 50kg rice, contained in 42 trailers; 3,366 bales of second hand clothing and 938 pairs of used shoes.
“The Nigerian Army is responsible for transportation of the items to the IDP centres.”
The controller appreciated the comptroller-general and the NCS management’s support for providing logistics support which aided the seizures.
He advised the economic saboteurs and fraudulent importers to invest their resources in legitimate trade and desist from smuggling activities.