The Nigeria Customs Service, Seme Area Command, has intercepted 11 trucks load of rice containing a total of 6, 753 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled with Duty Paid Value and levy totaling N157, 479, 960 in one month.
Briefing news men recently, the Customs Area Comtroller Seme Customs border, Mr. Uba Mohammed Garba, said a total of 22 fairly used vehicles and means of conveyance were seized within the period under review.
He said, “A total of 22 fairly used vehicles and means of conveyance have been seized within the period under review. Notable among them are: Toyota Coaster Van (2014 model), Toyota Land Cruiser Prado (2011), Mercedes Benz GLK 350 (2010), Toyota Sienna (2013), Toyota 4Runner (2014) among others. The combined Duty Paid Value (DPV) for the vehicles stood at one hundred and seventy-seven million, three hundred and fourteen thousand, ninety-one naira (N177, 314,091).
“Other items seized by the command within the period include: 45 x 25 litres jerry cans of vegetable oil with DPV of five hundred and seventy-three thousand, seven hundred and fifty Naira (N573,750), 135 x 50kg bags of Sugar with DPV of five hundred and sixty-seven thousand naira (N567,000), 71 x 25 litres of PMS with DPV of one hundred and six thousand, five hundred naira (N106,500), 21 cartons of tinned tomatoes with DPV of one hundred and twenty-seven thousand, five hundred and seventy-five naira (N127, 575) and two sacks of used shoes with sixty-seven thousand, five hundred naira (N67, 500).”
Others are 91 parcels of hard drugs and narcotics, which, according to Garba, while conducting newsmen round the seizures at Seme, had been successfully handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency .
He disclosed that one of the suspects, Difo Kenneth Cornelius, who was transferred to the NDLEA Seme command in August 2018, had been prosecuted successfully and was sentenced for a term of two years on the 30th November, 2018 for unlawful possession of 7kg of Cannabis Sativa.
He added that the unwavering resolve of the officers and men of the command in various operations, which focused on maximising revenue collection, suppression of smuggling and facilitation of legitimate trade was proficiently enforced across the Lagos-Abidjan corridor in the final month of
2018.
“As a result, in the month of December 2018, the command generated the sum of six hundred and twenty-three million, twenty-eight thousand, four hundred and forty-two naira, sixty-eight Kobo only (N623, 028, 442.68). Similarly,
the intensified operation of the Enforcement unit has drastically reduced smuggling activities to the barest minimum,”
he said.
He put the grand total for both seizures and revenue generated within the period under review to one billion, fifty-five million, one hundred and twenty-two thousand, five hundred and thirty-nine naira, sixty-eight Kobo. (N1,55bn).
