Customs evacuate 3000 smuggled bags of rice in Ogun community

THE Federal Operations Unit, Zone A of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has said that its operatives, last Friday, trailed and evacuated 3000 bags of smuggled rice from 10 houses along the waterside in Ere village of Ado-Odo Ota Local Government in Ogun State. This is even as the Unit explained that between August 29th to October 3rd, 2017; its officer intercepted various contraband with a duty paid value of N356, 205,050.78 only.

Addressing newsmen in Lagos on Wednesday, the Customs Area Comptroller, FOU Zone A, Mohammed Uba stated that the seizures included 11 used vehicles worth N125,403,598.5; 4,227 bags of 50kg foreign rice worth N52,136,029.35; 84 parcels of Indian Hemp worth N4,032,000.00; 249 bales of second hand clothing worth N4,482,000.00; 980 cartons of frozen poultry products worth N5,880,000.00; 907 pieces of used tyres worth N5, 043,000.00; 268 pairs of used shoes worth N160,000.00; Electric cables worth N18,528,000.00; Scrap metals worth N10,000,000.00; Wet blue leather for export worth N61,863,750.00; Wood in 7 separate containers worth N35,000,000.00; and 3 container loads of medications worth N31,537,273.2

According to Uba, “Just this Friday, we trailed and evacuated 3000 bags of smuggled rice from 10 houses along waterside in Ere village of Ado-Odo Ota Local Government, Ogun State. It was however surprising that each of these buses where the rice was stored had three exit doors to aid their nefarious activities.

“While we were evacuating the bags of rice from one house to another, the villagers were also busy packing the rice to the bush through alternative exit doors. That is to tell you the extent some people take the risk while indulging in smuggling. They see smuggling as a way of life since many inherited the business. We were able to achieve this with the support of the military from 9 Brigade of the Nigerian Army.

“The eleven seized vehicles are two Lexus jeep GX460 and RX330; one Toyota Rav4; Two Toyota Camry; 5 Mercedes Benz and one Iveco Truck tanker, all ranging from 2007 to 2013 models respectively.

“A total of 14 containers were also seized for false declaration and breach of Customs law with a duty paid the value of N104,684,023.2; while seven containers carrying unprocessed wood, one container carrying scrap metals, and another container carrying wet blue for export, all fell under export prohibition list and were consequently seized.

“Two containers carrying Made in Nigeria cables from China, declared as electric distribution board and ballast were also seized.

“In the spirit of inter-agency collaboration, the seized Indian Hemp, medications and cables will all be handed over to the NDLEA, NAFDAC and Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

“8 suspects have been arrested in connection with this seizure. For record purposes, so far, we have 12 trials at Supreme court, Court of Appeal and Federal High Court respectively. While 3 are criminal cases, nine are civil cases and one has been convicted and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.

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