New Telegraph

Customs seizes 7,000 bags of rice, used toys, drugs, others

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun Area Command 1, has confiscated 7,311 bags if smuggled foreign parboiled rice in the last one month. The Comptroller of the command, Dera Nnamdi, who disclosed this to journalists in Abeokuta yesterday, said the command also seized 300 litres of vegetable oil, four bales of used clothing, 26 sacks of used shoes and four sacks of used toys. Nnamdi explained that, the seized 7,311 bags of rice is equivalent to 12 trailer loads of foreign parboiled rice of 50kg each, saying it also translates to 365,550kg or 365.55 metric tons of the grains. Other seized items are 124 packs and 164 wraps of cannabis sativa weighing 167kg, two bundles and four pieces of used tyres with rims, 810 cartons of frozen poultry, 20,775 litres of petrol in 831 kegs among others.

The NCS also impounded 20 vehicles and two motorcycles used as means of conveying the seized items. According to Nnamdi, the cumulative duty paid value (DPV) for all the above seizures amounted to N172,999,387. Speaking further, the NCS boss stated that the command, in the last one month, generated N2,437,050 as proceeds from auction sales of seized petroleum products and scrap metals. “It should be noted that Federal Government of Nigeria’s directive on border closure is still subsisting, hence, there is no revenue generated from imports activities,” he added.

Meanwhile, Nnamdi has warned smugglers in the state to stop sabotaging the economy, stating that, “we shall definitely uncover every illegal act of theirs, make arrest and inflict gross financial injury on such ventures and their perpetrators.” He emphasised that the continuous attacks on customs and other security operatives by those he described as unpatriotic people would not deter them from sustaining the onslaught on their smuggling activities. “We are determined more than ever before to carry out our antismuggling operations without let or hindrance,” he added.

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