By Cliffsimeon Akalonu The Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja Lagos, of the Nigerian Customs Service, has intercepted and impounded contraband goods of different nature in the last one month. Briefing journalists in Lagos yesterday, the Comptroller, FOU, Zone A, Mohammed Uba, said that the period on under review from November 1st – 30th 2017, “after intensifying our operational modalities to meet up with the current smuggling tactics most especially as the yuletide draws closer”, his command intercepted various contraband with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of about N1,595,141,144.81. The sized items include 64 assorted brand new vehicles, 13,333 bags of foreign parboiled rice loaded in 22 trailers, 1,390 cartons of frozen poultry products, 835 Jerry cans of vegetable oil, 15 parcels of Indian Hemp, 1,101 pieces of used tyres, 205 of bales of used clothes. The Comptroller said among the detained vehicles include one bullet proof Toyota Land Cruiser, 9 Toyota Hulux, 8 Toyota Hiace bus, 26 Toyota Corolla, 2 Lexus SUV, 9 Land Cruiser SUV, 5 Toyota Camry, 1 Land Rover, 1 Nissan Sentra, 1 Pajero SUV and all is 2017 models among others. These 64 assorted vehicles have a duty paid value of about 1,302,927,106.16. While applauding his men for their immense effort to combat smuggling into Nigeria through our land borders, the Comptroller, also disclosed to news men 57 vehicles were impounded based on intelligence along Omole Estate, Ojodu and Olayiwole Close Lekki Phase 1, the remaining 7 were intercepted while on information patrol along Ijebu Ode expressway. “It was noted that as at the time of filling this information, nobody has come forward to claim ownership of the impounded items and I doubt if they have any Customs papers on them not to talk of the End-Users Certificate for the bullet proof”. He said, “as a matter of fact, any false declarations is tantamount to seizure, for example, total of 17/20 ft container loaded with wood are under detention on the suspicion that they have not met the required guidelines for export and in addition 1x20ft container was sized for carrying 385 cartons of Tiffany Crunch n’ Cream biscuits, 2,300 cartons of Tiffany chocolate and Toffee sweet as against Engine Block declared. “It will interest you to know that our legal unit has already been mandated to investigate and as soon as we get any headway about the owners or their agents, we will let the public know. In the spirit of inter-agency collaboration, the sized Indian Hemp will be handed over to the NDLEA for further investigations”. The Comptroller urged Nigerians to support the federal government policy on Rice so as to encourage Local rice farmers, the millers and participate in what is our nutritional rice. He also thanked the Comptroller General of Customs Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) and the entire management team of the Nigeria Customs Services for providing necessary logistics that brought about this captures.]]>
