The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Tincan Island Command has impounded two security vehicles smuggled into the country through the ports.

The vehicles concealed in a 40-footer container were falsely declared by the importer and the agent as ordinary vehicles in a bid to escape security checks.

Briefing newsmen in Lagos, the CAC of the Command, Comptroller Eporwei Edike explained that false declaration was a serious offence, even as he said that customs has no authority to clear security vehicles without approval and relevant documents from appropriate security agency in the country.

The CAC added, “a lot of goods are imported into the country through the ports. So, considering the security situation in the country at present, we are mapping out new strategies in our daily operations to ensure thorough examination of imports coming into our economic environment.

We are making effort to meet with relevant stakeholders in the ports to enhance smooth operations aimed at boosting revenue generation for government and securing the ports at the same time.

We are also working on crowd control through the use of Identity card batches to ensure appropriate security measures within the ports”, he said.

Edike who conducted newsmen round the seizures of imported new vehicles for 2011, which were falsely declared as importation of 2005, seizures of used tyres and groundnut oil, said the Command also realised N17billion revenue for the month of June 2011, which shows a reflection of N2billion above the monthly target.

He disclosed that the Command also recorded over N51.8billion between January and June 2009, N79.1billion in 2010 and N90.4billion within the same period in 2011.