By Tunde Ojudun<\/p>\n
The Eastern Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), under the leadership of Comptroller AB Jaja, has significantly escalated its enforcement operations across the Oron and Calabar maritime corridors. This follows a series of strategic inspections and stakeholder engagements aimed at curbing smuggling and wildlife trafficking.<\/p>\n
During a high-level inspection at the Oron Outstation in Akwa Ibom State, Comptroller Jaja unveiled several major seizures including 3,750 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) intercepted in anti-smuggling operations. Also assorted cartons of pharmaceuticals with a Duty Paid Value of \u20a612,049,612, including expired and unregistered drugs were seized as well as two sacks of endangered wildlife parts, including chimpanzee heads, parrots, and helmeted hornbill components, violations of CITES regulations.<\/p>\n
Comptroller Jaja commended the Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base (FOB) Ibaka for its intelligence-sharing support. He emphasized that the Command remains resolute in prosecuting all offenders, including passengers found aboard vessels carrying contraband. \u201cSadly, some of them are women,\u201d he noted, confirming that suspects are in custody and will face legal action.<\/p>\n
Reaffirming the Command\u2019s dedication to combating Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT), Jaja highlighted the multi-agency framework involving environmental and security agencies, aligned with national laws and international conventions such as CITES.<\/p>\n
Describing PMS smuggling as economic sabotage, Jaja issued a stern warning to perpetrators to desist or face prosecution. The seized pharmaceuticals were formally handed over to Mr. John Naeche, Akwa Ibom State Coordinator of NAFDAC, who pledged to notify Customs of the scheduled destruction of the items.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Comptroller Jaja met with maritime stakeholders in Oron to promote the CGC\u2019s principles of collaboration, compliance, and shared responsibility. He later traveled by water to Calabar, where he inspected the Command\u2019s jetty and held strategic discussions with Comptroller CG Ogbonna of the Cross River\/FTZA\/Akwa Ibom Command.<\/p>\n
Jaja reaffirmed the Eastern Marine Command\u2019s unwavering commitment to securing Nigeria\u2019s waterways and called on stakeholders to support lawful trade and regulatory compliance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tunde Ojudun The Eastern Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), under the leadership of Comptroller AB Jaja, has significantly escalated its enforcement operations across the Oron and Calabar maritime corridors. This follows a series of strategic inspections and stakeholder engagements aimed at curbing smuggling and wildlife trafficking. During a high-level inspection at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9052,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9050\/revisions\/9052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoplesforumonline.com.ng\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}