The Adamawa/Taraba Command of Nigeria Customs Service has announced the seizure of 19 cartons if foreign insecticide among other 18 seizures.
Addressing the press on Friday in Yola, the Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Salisu Kazaure Abdullahi stated that in the month under review, the Command had recorded (19) nineteen seizures of assorted items with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of Thirteen Million,Seven Hundred and Forty Nine Thousand, One hundred and Ten naira and Thirty Five Kobo only (N13,749,110.35).
He listed the seized items as including the following:
* 19 cartons of foreign insecticide;
*26 x 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice; and
*15,449 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) packed in 17 x 200L drums, 475x25L and 6 x 35L Jerry Cans respectively.
The controller hinted that defiance of the subsidy removal on the Premium Motor spirit (PMS), intelligence report has revealed that the smuggling of the product to the West African sub-region still persists. According to him, this is owing to the facts that the country’s PMS is of high quality and some of the products could be illegally sourced.
“It is worthy to note that, sometimes the smugglers and those who patronize them only take cognisance of the quality of the PMS and greatly
undermine the comparative cost. Illicit source and trade on crude oil and its by-products had inflicted remarkable economic losses on Nigerians and lawful stakeholders in the oil and gas industry. On the account of the inflammable nature of the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), most of it had been disposed of in accordance with the extant laws and the accrued proceed remitted into the Federation Account. The fraction of the PMS remaining here on ground will as well be auctioned immediately after this briefing. The seizure of the PMS is on the account of the contravention of section 246 of the Nigeria Customs Service Act 2023 and considering the facts that the territorial borders of the Command still remain officially closed,” Abdullahi stated.
The controller earlier said that the resolute and untiring efforts of the command’s operatives is geared towards ensuring that the core mandate of the service -Revenue generation, trade facilitation and suppression of smuggling amongst others is hugely achieved.
He disclosed that the command has repositioned officers across all its territorial borders, adding that the result of these unwavering efforts of the enforcement units of the service had really translated into a huge success of the numerous seizures of items recorded hitherto.
“This is invariably predicated on the intelligence sharing, synergy and gallantry efforts of our operatives,” he noted.
The controller informed that immediately after this conference, the destruction of the seized raw donkey skin that was earlier apprehended by the enforcement unit of the service on the 01 Sep 23 at Sahuda, Nigeria- Cameroon border would be witnessed by all.
“This destruction would be done in accordance with schedule number 15 of Nigeria Customs Service Act, 2023, the same way some of us here had witnessed the destruction of the illicit and counterfeit drugs yesterday, 16th November, 2023,” he stated.
Abdullahi explained that amidst the raid by the combatant officers none of the smugglers was arrested as they were overrun, fled and abandoned the items. “When overrun by our enforcement units, the smugglers always prefer to abandon their smuggled goods and flee in order to escape prosecution.
“I want to bring to the notice of the general public that the Command has vowed to clamp down on all smugglers, maintaining that the Nation cannot afford to allow saboteurs take over the Nation’s economy. On this note I implore all the patriotic Nigerians, stakeholders and all relevant security agencies at the Command’s frontiers to continue to collaborate with the Customs in the battle against this menace of smuggling as this fight is not a one man business,” he said.
The controller charged officers and men of the command to remain resolute and maintain the tempo in the fight against the menace of smuggling activities across the borderlines and ensure that smuggling operations become a difficult venture for those engaged in it and those intending to go into it.
Finally, he appreciated and thanked the Comptroller General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi Adewale, (MFR), and his management team for
providing the command with additional operational vehicles, saying that the presence of the vehicles had strengthened the efforts of the operatives in the area of combating the smuggling activities more effectively in the command and had yielded great success in terms of the seizures recorded in the period under review.
He vowed that the command will not rest on its oars until the menace of smuggling is significantly suppressed.