By Uzor Odigbo
The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘C’ Owerri said it has various contrabands with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N99.8million between April to June 2021.
According to a statement made available by the Unit Public Relations Officer, Jerry Attah, it states that most of the contraband goods were intercepted along Okada-Benin/Lagos expressway with five suspects arrested in connection with the seizures.
The breakdown of the seizures is said to include, 45 rolls containing 4,500 sachets of 225mg of royal brand of tramadol, 210 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice, 18 parcels of Indian Hemp, 19, 725 sachets of dizapam tablet and 98 bales of used clothing
Others are 220 cartons of foreign tomatoes paste, 12 cartons of foreign Johnson soap, 240 pieces of used tyres and 668 pairs of used shoes among others.
The statements also reads in part that the Area Controller of the Unit, Comptroller Yusuf Lawal, commends the resilience and doggedness of his officers and men that brought about the result noting that only God knows what would have happened if the tramadol gets to the wrong hand at this trying moment for the country
Comptroller Lawal added that the unit was able to achieve the feat through the logistics support provided by the Customs management. He however expressed appreciation to the media and other sister government agencies for providing necessary operational support.
In his words “This feat couldn’t have been possible without the logistics support of the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) and the entire management, as well as the media for their partnership in sensitizing and educating the general public on the evil of smuggling to the nation’s economy which has led to drastic reduction of smuggling within our zone.
“Even though smuggling is a global phenomenon that cannot be eradicated entirely, all hands must be on deck to reduce the menace to its barest minimum” he quipped.
Meanwhile he urged his officers and men to always ensure professionalism and be diligent in performing their statutory responsibilities.
While encouraging them to keep thwarting the antics of dare devil smugglers who used different methods of concealment for smuggling activities, he also charged them to sustain the anti-smuggling operations by making sure all revenue leakages are blocked