The Niger Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has appealed to traditional rulers in border communities in the state to support the service in its fight against smugglers in 2019.
The command’s Comptroller, Abbah Kassim, made the appeal in an interview on Wednesday in Minna.
Kassim said that the illicit trade required the efforts of all to protect the country’s economy.
He also solicited for vital information from the public that would enable the NCS field officers to apprehend all those engage in the illegal trade.
The comptroller said that the command would continue to mount surveillance and adopt measures that would make smuggling impossible in the area.
He lauded the efforts of the officers and men of the command for the smuggled items they seized in 2018.
Kassim said that the major items seized in 2018 included 41 vehicles with duty value of about N64 million.
According to him, others include: 189,000 pieces ammunition worth N63million, 17,497 litres of vegetable oil worth N8.3million as well as second-hand clothes, tin tomatoes, illicit drugs, mosquito coils, all valued at N5.5 million.
Kassim urged officers deployed in the field to continue to put in their best and promised that the hard working ones would be rewarded.
The command comprises Niger, Kogi and Kwara states.
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