Customs Says 64 Vehicles Have Been Forfeited To FG, Intercepts 13 More
The Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’, of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that 64 vehicles of different brands and year which were seized some months ago have been forfeited to the Federal Government, even as he said that the unit has intercepted 13 more exotic vehicles.
The Customs Area Controller in-charge of the Unit, Comptroller Mohammed Uba, said that the 64 vehicles which have been seized are undergoing various court processes of condemnation before they would be finally forfeited to the government.
He also warned against smuggling, saying that it negatively affects the economy of the country and brings about high rate of unemployment.
“Like I told you earlier the importation of vehicles through the land borders has been banned since January 1st 2016. Any vehicle that comes through the land border are a smuggled vehicle and it will finally land in this place(FOU). And it is for these reasons that we brought in these vehicles”
“It could be recalled that sometimes ago we showed you a number of vehicles that we detained and out of those detained vehicles we have converted 64 as seized vehicles. Those ones have been seized and they are now in the process of court condemnation and finally they will be forfeited to the federal government. These are new vehicles and you can see smuggled in, smuggling as you know is a very dangerous activity, it deals with the economy and brings unemployment and also diseases, it also kills our indexes”, he told journalists.
He also said that the unit will go on to enforce the government’s policy on the ban of the land importation of vehicles adding that they will go on and block revenue leakages.
“It is for this reason that we have to continue to impose the federal government policies on any importation of goods that are not allowed to come in. While at the same time we will also go ahead and block revenue leakages the money that is meant to come to the federal government from the borders stations. If the goods are released and appropriate government money have not been collected we make sure that such money are collected that is why you find some vehicles and containers here”
He also said that between March 19th top April 9th, the unit has detained 13 more vehicles include, including 1 Toyota Land cruiser (2018), 1 Escalades Cardilac (2017), 1 Range Rover (2014), 3 Toyota Camry (2009,2010 and 2017 models), 1 Toyota Rav 4, 1 Toyota Highlander (2014), 1 Honda CRV, 1 Honda Accord, 1 BMW Salon, 1 Toyota Sienna, 1 Hyundai, among others with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of , N258,137,766.98million only .
Comptroller, Uba said that some of the vehicles are not outright seizure saying that they are there for the purpose of collecting shortchanged money of the federal government.
“The vehicles are still under detention pending the grace period allowed for the owners to bring relevant customs document. The interception was done while on information patrol at various locations within our areas of jurisdiction. These 13 detained exotic Vehicles alone have a duty paid value of N258,137,766.98) only. Some of them are not outright seizure they are here for the purpose of collecting the shortchanged money of the federal government. After those processes have been completed the vehicles will be released to the owner. Unless otherwise if the goods brought in are prohibited goods, it will be seized and forfeited to the federal government. we are still in the process of investigation to establish the genuineness of the information supplied by them so that nobody will be cheated”
He said that some of the vehicles came in through Benin Republic and were brought in by the unit’s anti-smuggling and intelligence unit.
Uba, also warned against smuggling, saying that it kills the local industry and brings about unemployment in the country.
“The danger in the indiscriminate importation is that if the importation is wrongly done, it denies government of the desired revenue and it doesn’t give the government accurate statistics and the government needs accurate statistics. These are the dangers of indiscriminate importation. And goods that are not allowed to come in you bring them in that also go a long way to kill our local industry and bring in unemployment. And some of these goods if they were banned for health reasons for instance, second hand clothing, frozen foods are all banned for health reasons they are dangerous to our health. All these things bring problem to Nigeria and we need a sound society so that the economy will move forward”, he concluded.
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