By Uzor Odigbo
Operatives of Federal Operations Unit(FOU), Zone A of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have made seizures of drugs, vehicles, donkey skin and other general goods with duty paid value worth over N1.7b in Lagos.
Controller of the unit, Aliyu Mohammed who disclosed this Thursday in Lagos during a press briefing where he showed the seizures to journalists reiterated his men’s resolve to keep the anti smuggling tempo high despite casualties recorded by the unit which led to the death of an officer last week.
Giving a breakdown of the seizures, Mohammed said a 2019 bullet-proof Toyota Land Cruiser with duty paid value of N189m and 15 other high profile vehicles with a total DPV of N469,702,179 were seized from smugglers within one month.
Also seized were 1157 cartons of banned codeine syrup worth N405m; 347 cartons of codeine worth N173,500,000; 348 cartons of diclofenac tablets worth N27.8M; 1056 cartons of chest and lungs tablets worth N105,600,000; 49 cartons of paracetamol injections worth N39,200,000 and 220kg of substance suspected to be cannabis.
Donkey skin in 820 sacks valued at N77.9M, new and used textile materials, body lotion, shoes, spaghetti, machetes and used tyres were also among seizures displayed.
According to him, while some of the seized drugs were outright prohibitions, others being smuggled into the country were not registered by the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) which makes them unfit for consumption.
Mohammed who showed how smugglers pack rice in cement trucks thereby making some of the smuggled rice poisonous added that his men has made rice seizures of over 25,000 bags.
“We also have over 25,000 bags of 50kg rice which were seized the same period . Some of the rice are in our approved checkpoints awaiting evacuation to this place. Our Controller General was right when he said some foreign rice smuggled into the country are poisonous and unfit for human consumption” he said.
“Look at how cement has rubbed all over the bags of rice. This is why we always ensure that NAFDAC certifies any rice we are giving to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and orphanages. NAFDAC even confirmed to us during some of our due diligence that some of these rice were not even fit for animal consumption.
“You can see cement mixing with rice. This, obviously, will be injurious to human and animal health, if consumed.
“We are advising Nigerians to patronise our locally grown rice. I personally believe that Nigeria has achieved self sufficiency in rice production and we shall continue to seize these rice and other prohibited items to safeguard the health of our people.
“The donkey skin we are seizing is also to protect endangered species. If we allow people to keep killing them because their leather is in high demand elsewhere, we may not have the animal again. We uncovered these recent donkey skin seizure in a building around Alaba Rago.
“Our anti smuggling operations will always be high and we have mapped out strategies to keep making more seizures. I wont disclose our strategies because they are operational secrets but I can give assurance that we will continue to take smugglers unaware by surprising them with sudden appearance to seize their wares and arrest them always,” he said.