The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of the Nigeria Customs Service has made 128 seizures including vehicles, rice, Indian hemp, frozen poultry products, medicaments, unprocessed wood among others with Duty Paid Value of N356, 205, 050.78.
At a press briefing held at the command in Ikeja Lagos yesterday, the Controller of FOU; Mohammed Uba noted that the goods were intercepted for various offences including wrong declaration, concealment, falsification of document and smuggling. He noted that eight suspects have been arrested in connection with the seizures.
The 11 used vehicles include are: two lexus jeep GX460 and RX330, one Toyota Rav4, two Toyota Camry, 5 Mercedez Benz and one Iveco truck, all ranging from 2007 to 2013 models. They have a Duty Paid Value of N125.4M.
Others are; 227 bags of foreign parboiled rice worth N52.1M, frozen poultry products worth N5.8M, vegetable oil at N2.1Million, 84 parcels of Indian hemp worth N4million, three forty foot containers of medicament worth N31.5million, used tires, a 20foot container of scrap metals worth N10m, a 20foot container of wet blue N61m.
Also, two units of 20-foot containers of electric cables valued at N18.5M, seven containers of wood worth N35m, bales of used clothing worth N4.4m and shoes at N160, 000 were seized.
While handing over the containers of medicament, cables and Indian Hemp to relevant agencies including the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) yesterday, Compt Uba noted that the medicament were imported without appropriate import document and certification.
He said the two containers of cables were carrying ‘made in Nigeria’ labels but they were actually imported from China, which was declared as electric distribution board and ballast.
Speaking on the anti smuggling prowess of the FOU, he said “Remarkably, last week Friday 29th September 2017, based on information, we trailed and evacuated 3000 bags of smuggled rice from 10 houses along waterside in Ere Village of Ado-Odo Local Government of Ogun State. Each of these houses has three exit doors for their nefarious activities, as we were evacuating the rice from one house to the other, the villagers were also busy packing the rice to the bush through other exit”
“This is to tell you the extent some people take risks while indulging in smuggling. They see smuggling as a way of life and an inherited business. We were able to achieve this with the support of the military from 9 Brigade Nigerian Army, Ikeja” he said.
While officially receiving the armored cables, Assistant Director, Compliance Directorate of SON, Makwe Mathias Chike said that the cables were branded as Nigerian cables in order to deceive Nigerians. “They know that Nigerian cables is the best in the world, cables is life dangerous materials, if you allow it into your house, it is injurious to your life”
Also present to receive the Indian hemp was Director of Investigation and Enforcement of NDLEA, Abdulazeez Yahyah Uthman and an Assistant Direct of NAFDAC, Mr. Declan Ugwu. They all assured that full investigations would be conducted on the goods and feedback would be given to the customs.
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