Customs Seized Items Worth N7.1B in 2022

The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service has siezed 45,928 bags of smuggled foreign rice weighing 50kg each.

Lovetvnews gathered that the total load siezed is equivalent to 77 trailer loads, hard drugs, petroleum products and many other prohibited items worth over N7.1 billion in Duty Paid Value (DPV).

The FOU also arrested 103 suspect who are allegedly linked to the siezed items.

Compt. Hussein Kehinde Ejibunu, Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Unit, revealed this information in a brief with pressmen while giving reports of activities of the Zone in the first half of 2022.

The CAC made it known that the unit is ready and available to frustrate smugglers out of their illegal business.

Listing the other achievements made, he attributed them to the sustained intelligence and operational strategies the team deployed within their area of responsibility, also thanking the Comptroller General of Customs, CGC Hameed Ibrahim Ali and his Management team for providing logistics and support for the team to ensure good performance.

Other items seized include; 2,933 bales of used clothes; 14,784 used tyres; 65 vehicles; 3,659.05 kg of cannabis sativa; 119 motorcycles used in smuggling foreign rice, 265,830 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol; 233 cartons of tramadol (225mg each).

Compt. Ejibunu expressed displeasure over the activities of smugglers which are economic saboteurs, saying that the smuggling of these hard drugs for consumption is partly responsible for the increased crime rate in the country, emphasizing that the activities of criminal elements must be checked to have sanity in the country as we prepare for another election year.

Although, this unit is not revenue generating, their contribution to revenue collection have amounted to N577,853,457.96 (approximately N577.9 million) on underpayments of trade goods in the first half of the year 2022.