Customs impound N26bn contraband

THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone C, Owerri, Imo State, has confiscated a number of banned and illegally imported items of overall Duty Paid Value (DPV) valued more than N26 billion.

The prohibited goods include 928 packets of tramadol, and other drugs impounded on the Owerri/Port Harcourt road, estimated at N10,009,310; a truck loaded with 600 bags of foreign rice, impounded on the PH/Onne Road valued a DPV of N21,420,000 and 10 sacks of used shoes seized on the Aba/PH Road which bore a DPV of N8,100,000.

Others are two second-hand Toyota Avalon cars seized on the Owerri/Port-Harcourt Road, which had a total DPV of N3,712,500.

The rest of the goods were: 1,117 cartons of Tiger Head batteries seized on the Benin/Ore axis with a DPV of N26.057,376; a medicine truck containing 268 cartons of Karfi, 202 cartons of pullegra, 36 cartons of Real Extra tablets impounded on the Agbor/Asaba highways bearing a DPV of N168,200,000; a truck load of 1,080 cartons of new motorcycle spare parts, but which was falsely declared as agricultural products on the  Benin/Ore Expressway.

The Area Comptroller in-charge of the unit, Comptroller Mohammed Ubah Garuba, who spoke to newsmen, said 1,600 bags of rice, with a DPV of N56,183,000, was also seized on the Ewu junction and Benin/Ore expressway, respectively, noting that some suspects were facing interrogation in connection with the seizures.

Garuba, who expressed shock at the unabating rate of smuggling of contraband items into the country, despite stiff penalties against culprits, said the NCS remained undeterred in its efforts to tackle the scourge of smuggling.

He lamented that while many individuals and their families had been ruined as a result of smuggling of illegal goods, the nation’s economy had continued to suffer devastating setback for the same reason.

Garuba added that the NCS would not compromise in its mission to check smuggling, so as to encourage the growth and development of local industries.