Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, yesterday, said it generated N79 million revenue from recoveries of low value, transfer of value, wrong classification and public auction sales of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in February.
The Acting Controller of the unit, Hussein Ejibunu, who disclosed this to journalists, said the unit intercepted 36,575 litres of premium motor spirit from smugglers in the Southwest zone between February 3rd and 28th, 2022.
He said other items intercepted include, 6,749 bags of smuggled parboiled rice at 50kg each equivalent to 11 trailers load, 599 bales of secondhand clothing, 906 cartons of frozen poultry products, 2,001 pieces of used tyres, 175 pieces of used compressors, 180 cartons of foreign soap, 52 used fridges, 285 cartons of unregistered pharmaceutical products, 13 units of fairly used vehicles, 15 cartons and 23 bales of lace materials, 338 cartons of mosquito repellant, with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N587 million.
Ejibunu said smuggling is a complete monster with a direct link to illicit drugs and their abuse, armed robberies, kidnapping, the balance of trade deficit, unemployment, increased crime waves, high mortality rate as a result of fake drugs and youth restiveness.
“Today, the Southwest zone has become quite hot for smugglers to operate freely. We are, however, not singing a victory song yet because of what we still have up our sleeves. It is therefore our collective responsibility to say no to smuggling.
” The fight against smuggling and smugglers needs the cooperation and collaboration of everyone. We need credible information to successfully combat smuggling considering the overwhelmingly negative consequences,” he said.
Ejibunu, however, warned smugglers to embrace legitimate trade or business or be ready to face the consequences.
