By Uzor Odigbo
The Seme command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it intercepted various smuggled items through the land border worth over N12 million.
The command however did not state location and the time the items were intercepted neither was it stated if any suspect was caught in connection with the seizures.
According to the release made available to reporters, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Selechang Taupyen, said the seized items include frozen poultry products, imported rice and textile materials.
He stated further that the Controller of the command, Comptroller Mohammed Aliyu has issued stern warning to smugglers in the corridor to desist or meet their waterloo.
He said: “There are numerous seizures (frozen poultry products, imported rice and textile materials) made from smugglers despite their antics to gain passage.
The seizures have a duty paid value (DPV) of 12,729,780.00.
“The commands helmsman comptroller Mohammed Aliyu A is bringing his wealth of experience to bare as the operational strategies of the once hostile responses from the dare devil smugglers in the command is now intelligent driven.
“Commenting on the intelligent driven seizures, the Customs Area Controller disclosed that the command will continue to operate using the best strategies to suppress smuggling to the barest minimum.”
Taupyen added that as the smugglers devise new antics, so the Customs officer get ahead of them hence the success of the recent seizures.
“This is evident in the recent seizures made by the command despite the effort put in by the smugglers in reconstructing their means of conveyance for concealment and easy passage.
“Suffice to say that the current intelligent driven operation of the command is not only in line with the operational ethics of the service, but also in line with the international best practices,” he said.
He stressed that the command shall continue the harvest of seizures from non-compliant stakeholders and smugglers who have refused to heed the clarion call of being patriotic in their trade transactions along the corridor.
