Barely two weeks after the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col Hameed Ali (rtd) showcased various seizures made by Federal Operations Umit (FOU), Zone ‘A’, Ikeja, worth over N10 billion, the unit has again intercepted 1,393 bags of smuggled foreign parboiled rice, 187jerrycans, 66 drums of foreign vegetable oil, 625 Cartons of poultry products and 50 jerry cans of foreign vegetable oil from unapproved routes within Ogun State.
The Acting Controller of the command, Usman Yahaya, disclosed this in a statement, saying surveillance and routine patrol had aided its war against smugglers.
The rice, vegetable oil and poultry products, he stated, were conveyed in 12 different motor vehicles and also concealed in gas cylinders with a cumulative duty paid value of N40.144 million.
According to him, “This desperate act by these dare devil smugglers concealing edible items in a gas cylinder further justifies the hard chase by operatives of Customs. Duty Paid Value (DPV) break down of the seized items is as follows: Rice N27,860,000.00, Veg. Oil N6,284,250.00 and frozen Poultry N6,000,000.00).”
Yahaya warned that unless the economic saboteurs repent from their unscrupulous activities, they will continue to count their losses.
He also advised legitimate traders to be compliant in their declarations as the unit is ever ready to facilitate their trade in line with world best practices.
While thanking the Comptroller General of Customs and the entire management team of the Nigeria Customs Service for providing necessary logistics and motivation that led to this feat, Yahaya called on all meaningful Nigerians to support the Service’s fight against smuggling activities by providing intelligence that could assist the unit achieve more monumental seizures.
