The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Wednesday said its operatives intercepted 15 bulletproof jackets, 15 pieces of jack knives and 20 pieces of pistol pouches inside a Toyota Sienna bus at Ijebu-Ode checkpoint in Ogun State.
Acting Controller of the Unit, Hussein Ejibunu who disclosed this while briefing journalists on the Unit’s activities for the month of July said the military hardware was smuggled into the country without an end user certificate.
He said the driver of the Sienna bus conveying the military hardware was also arrested.
“It is pertinent to know that the importation of all forms of bulletproof materials such as vests, ballistic materials and vehicles, as well as parts and accessories for all military armaments and hardware such as guns, arms and ammunition of all kinds; lethal and non-lethal requires an end-user certificate.
“An end-user certificate is applied to, and issued by the office of the national security adviser which loses its validity after one year from the issuance date. Hence, anyone importing a controlled item must do so within the validity period of the end-user certificate,” he said.
Ejibunu said 50 seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N462.7 million were made within the period under review for non-compliance with the extant Customs laws.
He added that the sum of N66 million was recovered as revenue into the federation account through the issuance of demand notices (DN) on Customs duties that were discovered to be underpaid.
Notable among the seizures made he said are: 5,642 X 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice (equivalent to 9 trailer loads), 18,925 litres (757 X 25 litres jerry cans of premium motor spirit), 49 cartons of children’s school shoes and 181 (87 kg) parcels of Indian Hemp.
Others are, 357 kegs X 5 litres of vegetable oil, 1 unit of Honda Motorcycle and 2 used tokunbo vehicles.
He said 13 suspects were arrested in connection with some of the seizures, and are at different stages of investigations and prosecution.
Ejibunu also handed over three suspects and cannabis sativa with a net weight of 7,728 kilogrammes to officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for further investigation and prosecution.
“Seizures recorded within the period under review are a reflection of officers’ commitment to duty, and no compromise posture in the discharge of our statutory responsibilities; aimed at protecting the national economy and preventing the importation of prohibited, and harmful goods.
“This success story will not be complete without my expression of gratitude to the Ag. Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi MFR whose maiden working visit to the Unit was a morale booster. I also use this medium to thank him and members of the management team for stoking our logistics for more gainful performance,” he said.
