The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit
(FOU) Zone ‘C’, Owerri has continued to beam its search light on smugglers of
contraband goods in the country resulting in the seizure of a total of one
hundred and sixty-nine (169) items with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of one billion,
three hundred and seventy-nine million, seven hundred and seventy-two thousand,
five hundred and seventeen naira (N1,379,772,517.00) and a total of three
hundred and ninety-four million, eight hundred and fifteen thousand, and thirty
eight naira (N 394,815,038.00) as an underpayment recovered within the period
in question; forty-two (42) suspects were arrested in connection with the
seizures made, while twenty-five (25) cases are now pending in court for
possible prosecution of the culprits between January and June this year. This
is in contrast with a total of N39,644,813.00 underpayment recovered and a DPV
of N1,013,833,362.00 which the unit recorded in the year 2015.
The Customs Comptroller in charge of the Unit, Haruna
Mammudu who disclosed this, in a Press Release signed by the Public Relations
Officer in Owerri, Assistant Superintendent of Customs II Onuigbo, Ifeoma; said
that the banned items were confiscated by the vigilant Officers and Men of the
Unit on the Benin, Calabar, Owerri, Enugu and Aba/Eleme axis within the zone.
According to the Comptroller, the items which were packaged and concealed in
such a manner as to deceive security agents on duty include 90 vehicles; 2,758
bags of 50kg rice; 4,160 pieces of used tyres; 1,337 cartons/set of furniture
and 625 cartons of fake drugs (medicaments).
Others were 61 containers of log of wood; 2,600 pieces of
imported school bags; 97 pieces of 14 stroke engine generator and used fridges;
3,550 cartons of foreign frozen poultry products; 992 bales of second hand
clothings; 897 cartons of foreign detergents and creams as well as 167 pairs of
foot wear. Comptroller Haruna while professing the preparedness of the NCS to
tackle the scourge of smuggling of unauthorized goods into the country
expressed delight at the seizures profile recorded during the first six (6)
months of the year 2016 as against that made last year.
He however re-emphasized the dangers and implications
inherent in the smuggling of illegal and unauthorized goods into the country,
noting that while the ugly practice had continued to deal a devastating blow on
the nation’s economy, many families had been ruined as a result of the
dastardly unpatriotic practice. The Comptroller therefore appealed to Nigerians
who are still trapped in the illicit cancer of smuggling to retract their steps
in their own interest, warning that the Nigeria Customs Service is now better
equipped, trained, motivated and reinvigorated to neutralize the antics of
smugglers and to dislodge them wherever they hibernate to perpetrate their evil
acts.
He also appealed to member of the public with useful information
about smugglers, their agents and collaborators to always make them available
to security agencies for necessary actions, pledging that such classified
information would not be divulged to any individual, group or association.
Haruna also advised the officers to always discharge their duty without fear or
favour and abide strictly to the ethics of their profession; adding that
efficiency, productivity, and dedication to duty should be their watch words in
spite of any challenge facing them.
He assured them that government will always continue to
reward hard work to deserving officers who distinguish themselves in the
discharge of their official duties.
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