The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) said it intercepted 10,309 jerry cans of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) equivalent to eight tankers load of 33,000 litres each being smuggled out of the country to neighbouring Benin Republic.
Controller of the command, Comptroller Muhammed Jibo, who disclosed this at a media briefing in Seme on Tuesday said the seizure was part of 1,244 various smuggled goods intercepted by the command from January till date with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N886million.
Comptroller Jibo, who took journalists round the seized items including some petroleum products packed in sacks explained that smugglers are deploying new tactics as they now resort to using sacks to smuggle PMS.
Petroleum products packed in sacks intercepted by opeartaives of the Seme border command.
Jibo listed other seized items made within the review period to include;109 units of smuggled vehicles out of which 37 are presently in court awaiting condemnation, 10,706 bags of rice, 44 bags of NPK fertilizer, 608 cartons of frozen poultry product, 784 rolls of cigarette and 11 jerry cans of vegetable oil.
Others are 843 cartons of tomato paste, 605 pairs and 12 sacks of used shoes, 17 sacks and seven bales of used clothes, 19 pieces of used tyres, 153 sachets of herbicides and 1419 packs of different drugs and other general merchandise.
The Controller attributed the successes recorded to the dedication and commitment of officers, collaboration with security agencies as well as a cordial working relationship with stakeholders and the host communities.
“The above successes recorded could be attributed to the continuous robust stakeholders’ engagements, vigorous intelligence gathering through collaboration with the host communities, especially the youth, security agencies and the determination, and commitment demonstrated by the officers and men of the Command and ensuring compliance to extant government fiscal policies as relates to import and export,” he said.
Comptroller Jibo added that the command processed and exited exported trade volume of 635, 149.23 metric tons with a Free On board (FOB) value of N15.6billion within the review period.
He said that the Nigerian Export Supervision Scheme (NESS) value stood at N78million during the period under review while the command treated and exited 1,314trucks of goods under the ETLS scheme.
In the area of revenue, Comptroller Jibo said the Benin Republic policies mandating all goods transiting through Benin to pay some duties and levies, which according to him is contrary to the ECOWAS protocols and international transit agreements affected the revenue drive of the command as it collected the sum of N718 million during the period under review.
“The grand total for both seizure and revenue during the period under review is N1.6billion,” he said.
Meanwhile, Comptroller Jibo has handed over the 3,447 parcels of cannabis sativa concealed with sharp sand to the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
He said the hemp, which was one of the largest single arrests made by the command along the Seme Badagry axis, has a DPV N98.9million.
“This is not the first time we are handing over such a seizure to NDLEA. Sometime in July this year, we handed about 232 parcels of marijuana to NDLEA. Sometimes in August too, we made some arrests and were equally handed over to NDLEA. And today, we are handing over 3,447 parcels of cannabis sativa,” he said.
While urging the NDLEA to continue with the ongoing investigation to ensure that the suspects are brought to book, the Customs boss assured that the command will continue to ensure an expanded coordination with all other security agencies to minimize level of smuggling along the Seme border axis.
The commander of NDLEA, Seme command Udotong Essien, assured that the agency would carry out further investigation to find out those involved in smuggling cannabis into the country.
“Behind all these banditries and the insecurity plaguing our dear nation, drugs are the cause of the problem. If this is allowed to go into the society, you can imagine the damaging effect on our economy. The Customs has done its part and so we are going to take it up from there to bring those behind these things to book to serve as deterrent to orders,” he said.
