Custom intercept N1.3b smuggled goods
Custom arrest seven, intercept N1.3b goods. The Nigeria Customs Service’s Ogun 1 Area Command caught 22,526 bags of foreign parboiled rice weighing 50kg on Tuesday and seized 392 items, including five exotic luxury buses smuggled into the country through the Ohumbe land border between January and June 2023.
Bamidele Makinde, Customs Area Controller, stated to the press on the command’s 2023 scorecard in six months that 392 seizures were made with a total Duty Paid Value of N1,313,628,488.
He added that seven suspected smugglers were arrested for smuggling activities within the months under review.
“The 22,526 bags of foreign parboiled rice were intercepted in Ipokia, Ilara, and Imeko, among other border areas in the state,” Makinde said. During the period under review, we made a total seizure of 392 items which comprises 5,048 pieces of used tyres; 390 bales of used clothing; 61 units of vehicles including five luxury buses; 173,975 litres of petrol, an equivalent of five tanker loads; 107 sacks and 1,595 wraps of cannabis sativa; 167 cartons of 100x100ml and 27 cartons of 200x100ml codeine syrup.
“The command generated the sum of N93,301,130 from import duties; auction sales of Premium Motor Spirit, and scrap vehicles seized from smugglers. A comparative analysis of the command’s performance during the period under review and the corresponding period of 2022, indicates a significant increase in revenue.
“We will continue to fight rice smuggling and other prohibited items in order to encourage local production in accordance with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s policy on local production.”