As part of its anti smuggling activitiesthe Federal Operaions Unit of Nigeria Customs Service, Zone A Lagos recently made a seizures worth N1,010,295,666.2 between April 10 and May 15 2018.
Controller of the unit, Mohammed Uba who addressed newsmen in Lagos also disclosed that the unit recovered a total of NI.039,156,454b from cases of underpayments of duty within the period
The seized items according to Uba includes 30 Exotic vehicles comprising of 7Toyota Hilux (2018 model), 3 Toyota Prado SUV (2017) 1 Range
Rover, 1 Ford Edge (2015), 5,516c bags of foreign parboiled rice (9trailers), 1,078 cartons of frozen poultry products, 216 jerrycans of vegetable oil, 173 bales of used clothing, 683 pieces of used tyres, 8 sacks of Indian Hemp weighing 134 kg among others. Also, two containers with no: MSKU130295/2 and MRKU877714/0 have been seized for false declaration with a DPV of over 25 million naira alone.
Uba said the command arrested a total of 14 suspects were arrested in connection with 125 seizures made within the period adding that the command will not compromise on its fight against smuggling and any form of customs duty evasion.
Uba also explained that some of the seizures were given out to Internally Displaced Persons in line with a directive from the Controller General of Customs.
”For the avoidance of doubt, after Court processes and Condemnation the Presidential Committee on IDPS chaired by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) has approved the evacuation of the following items to Borno State Government for distribution to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) through the Nigerian Army Corps of Supply and Transport (NASCT): 25,318 bags of Rice 50gk (42Traillers), 3,366 jerrycans of 25 liters, 175 gallons of vegetable oil (5litres), 1,564 bales and 122 sacks of second hand clothing, 196 sacks and 938 pairs