Seme Customs collect N575m, as FOU Zone C seize contraband worth N500m

NIGERIA Customs Service, NCS, Seme Command has generated the sum of N575.6 million as revenue in the month of July 2018, even as the Command seized 2,000 cartoons of spice gin within the period. This is even as the Zone C Federal Operation Unit, FOU of the Nigerian Customs Service said it has seized contraband worth N500 million between February and August this year even as it vowed it would continue to put measures in place to check the activities of smugglers and their collaborators in the country.

RAID: The Roving Unit of the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A recently raided Iddo and Totowu creeks both in Lagos where they impounded over 1,500 bags of imported rice. Pix shows some of the smuggled rice being conveyed on wooden canoes.

The Customs Area Controller, CAC, Compt. Aliyu Mohammed, said that the antismuggling operation of the Command also made 91 seizures with a Duty Paid Value, DPV of N130.9 million during the same period under review. Mohammed expressed satisfaction over the figure collected disclosing that the revenue represented about 85 per cent of the target budgeted for the Command.

He noted that seizure of Fire Spice Gin was as a result of the 42 percent concentrate of alcohol content. Over 2,000 cartons of the said item was found concealed in a truck with the intention of evading Customs control. A statement signed by the Public Relations officer of the Command, Saidu Nuruddeen Abdullahi, gave DPV of the seized item as over N13million. While restating the commitment of Customs officers of the Command to securing the border against illicit trade that is harmful to the health and wellbeing of the citizenry, he further assured that “the Joint Border Post will serve as a platform that will simplifyCustoms procedures while increasing cooperation, collaboration, coordination and harmonious working relationships at the border post. 

“Based on the WCO (World Customs Organisation) emphasis on transnational border control management and the technical simulation/ handover of the Joint Border Post by the ECOWAS Commission at Seme which held on Friday, 27th July 2018; the CAC also disclosed that the Command is poised to conduct its assigned responsibilities with discipline at all levels and also ensure border security and seamless facilitation of legitimate trade, in tandem with the executive order on the ease of doing business.”

Deputy Comptroller, DC and National Coordinator, CGsStrike Force, DC Abdulahi Kirawa stated this in Benin City, Edo state when he presented seized contrabands to newsmen. He said the seized items included over five thousand 50Kg parboiled bags of rice, concealed in Elephant bags, twenty one vehicles, One thousand, eight hundred used tyres , one hundred and twenty five bales of used Clothes and foot Wears, bags of Cannabis Sativa sealed in a salon car. 

He said the contrabands were seized between February 28 and August this year “largely through the creeks and land borders through intelligence gathering, credible information provided to officers and men through good Samaritans and of course, the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU). Kirawa said all the items seized are banned item. “The seized rice for instance do not date of production, batch number, expiry date, and NAFDAC number non existent” 

He said a set 1,800 used tyres were discovered in a container which the owner declared contained fairly used vehicles ”but inside the container were 1800 pieces of used tyres made up of a bundle having four pieces each. They were craftily arranged in such a way that if you are not observant, you will think it is just one tyre” Kirawa said the vehicles seized were without end users certificate a document he said was needed even before duty is allowed to be paid on the vehicle. He said a Toyota Camry car thought to be a private car was also seized and checks showed that it was laden with cannabis sativa popularly called Indian Hemp concealed in a bag “where you will think it is either vegetable or cloths”

He said125 bales of second hand clothing which he said were in the absolute prohibition list were also siezed. On his part, the Zonal Commander Kolade Kayode thanked the management of the service as he vowed to fish out smugglers in the zone. “We are not advising them to stop but we will make sure that we track them down. If they continue to do it, they should be sure that we will waste their resources and turn them to paupers because smuggling is being done by rich men in this country and we will make sure we waste their resources.”