From January 1 to December 31 2022, the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service made a whopping total seizure of smuggled items worth a duty paid value of Thirteen Billion, Nine Hundred and Eight Million, Five Hundred and Seventy-five Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty-six Naira, Five Kobo (N13,908,575,436.5).
Aside protecting the national economy, some of the seizures achieved the protection of citizens’ health because dangerous, expired and harmful products were prevented from being smuggled into the country.
Addressing the press on Thursday, Acting Controller of the unit, DC Hussein Kehinde Ejibunu disclosed that the items seized were foreign parboiled rice, vehicles, drugs, textiles, petroleum products and other items in the import and export prohibition lists.
According to DC Ejibunu, in terms of volume, rice topped the list of the seizures.
“We seized 93,102 X 50kg which amounts to about 156 trailer loads of rice. Even our newly constructed warehouse had an overflow of seized rice,” he stressed.
He added that s total number of 108 automobiles comprising of trucks, tankers, cars and motorcycles were seized either as smuggled items or means of conveyance of smuggled items.
The Acting Controller sayed that illicit drugs seized within the year under review are, 7,354 kg and 4,975 tablets of Cannabis sativa, 233 cartons X 225 milligrams, and 82 packs X 225 milligrams of Tramadol.
He decried the danger inherent in these hard drugs as they fuel crime and insecurity.
Petroleum products are not left out of the seizure as the Unit seized 656,414 liters of premium motor spirit (PMS); that is, about 20 tanker loads of fuel from economic saboteurs who seek to impoverish the majority of Nigerian people by taking out petrol subsidized for citizens’ benefit to be sold in other countries.
The Acting Controller revealed that the Unit arrested 176 smuggling suspects during the period under review, secured 7 convictions and charged 14 to court and are at various stages of investigation and prosecution.
He stated that seven suspects are in detention while two suspects were handed over to NDLEA, and one suspect was handed over to the Nigeria Police respectively, while 151 are on administrative bail.
Ejibunu was sad to announce that the Unit lost four of its officers namely: Late inspectors of Customs TP Astor, and A Onwueguzie, and Assistant Inspectors of Customs, Musa, R and Bristol, E in active service while confronting smugglers last year. He stated emphatically that while Customs frowned at such murderous acts, the Service also ensured that those behind some of the killings were arrested to face justice.
“As approved by our enabling laws, the Unit patrolled within its area of responsibility and ensured that smuggled items were uncovered and seized wherever they were hidden. Our round the clock patrol is ever recharged as we don’t believe in leave, not even during the yuletide. “Those who doubted this and attempted smuggling during the yuletide were shocked at our Christmas and New Year period operations,” he said.
DC Ejibunu attributed all the achievements to the use of a combination of vigor, relying on the logistics provided by the Comptroller General of Customs and intelligence gathered from the field about smugglers’ movement from time to time.
He hinted that in the course of carrying out its enforcement function, the Unit recovered shortfalls in duty payments and achieved a total collection of Eight Hundred and Seventy-eight Million, Three Hundred and Fourty-four Thousand, Four Hundred and Eighty-six Naira, Ninety-six Kobo. (N878,344,486,96) as revenue for the government in 2022.
“This collected revenue would have been lost but for the intervention of FOU ‘A’, checking to be sure correct duties were paid into government coffers,” he narrated.
On trade facilitation, the unit provided support for facilitation of legitimate trade, ensuring ease of passage for compliant traders and double checking suspected non-compliant traders.
“We also provided escort services for cargoes under bond to their respective destinations across the country,” he said.