By Moses Ebosele, ebosele@hotmail.com
Between January and June, 2017, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’ Ikeja recovered One Billion, Two Hundred and Eighty Six Million, Seven Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Six Hundred and Seventy One Naira, Ninety Kobo (N1,286,730,671.90) from duty payments and demand notices on general goods “that tried to beat the system from seaports, airport and border stations through wrong classification, transfer of value, and shortchange in duty payment”.
Also, the unit intercepted various contraband with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of One Billion, Two Hundred and Ninety Five Million, Six Hundred Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty Four Naira, Ninety Five Kobo only (1,295,600,724.95), making a cumulative of Two Billion, Five Hundred and Eighty Two Million, Three Hundred and Thirty One Thousand, Three Hundred and Ninety Six Naira, Nine Kobo (N2,582,331,396.9)
In the Months under review, 95 suspects were arrested in connection to these seizures and 475 different seizures were recorded comprising foreign parboiled rice, frozen poultry products, vegetable oil, smuggled vehicles, Indian hemp, arms, fake pharmaceutical/medicaments and various general merchandise.
The Controller, Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ Comptroller Mohammed Uba Garba in a statement signed by Public Relations Officer, Jerry Attah thanked the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) and the entire Management Team of the Nigeria Customs Service for their efforts in recognizing hard work and putting square begs in square holes.
He said: “Without the Management motivation and necessary logistic support, we won’t have achieved this feat within this period”.
Similarly, Comptroller Uba commended the commitment and diligence of the Officers and Men of the FOU ‘A’ for thwarting the antics of some dare devil smugglers who used different methods for concealment. He charged all his officers to be professional and diligent in performing their statutory responsibilities; most especially in the area of anti-smuggling operations by making sure all revenue linkages are blocked.
Comptroller Mohammed Uba added that smuggling is a global phenomenon, which cannot be curbed entirely “but can be brought to its barest minimum”.
