The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone C, said on Wednesday that it intercepted smuggled items, and also raised debit notes (DN) worth N1.3 billion in the first three months of 2021.
Yusuf Lawal, Customs Area Controller, Zone C, said that about N1.280 billion was generated from seizures from contraband items and N7.6 million was recovered from demand notice for cargoes that exited the seaport but were under- or falsely declared, according to a first quarter report by Jerry Attah, public relations officer of the unit.
According to him, the contraband items seized are bags of smuggled foreign parboiled rice, unregistered pharmaceutical drugs, foreign soaps, tomato paste, among others.
“The detained and seized items include 2,976 bags of 50kg each of foreign parboiled rice; 1,024 cartons of Colcaps medicament imported without NAFDAC certification; 290 cartons of foreign eva soap; 204 cartons of foreign tomato paste and130 jumbo bales of used clothing. Others are 5,200 live ammunition cartridges, six exotic vehicles, one 2019 model of Toyota land cruiser without end user certificate, one 2020 model of Toyota Hilux and one 2018 model of Toyota Corolla cars among others,” he said.
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Lawal said that the feat wouldn’t have been possible without the logistics support from the Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd), and the entire management of the NCS.
“We urge all well-meaning Nigerians to support the Service in the fight against smuggling by providing credible and timely intelligence that will help the Unit to reduce smuggling to its barest minimum as we hope to improve more in the second quarter by intensifying our surveillance,” he added.
