By Udeme Clement

The Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has arraigned two suspected smugglers at the Magistrate Court, Ikeja, Lagos State on nine-count charge of smuggling prohibited items into the country against government’s policy to grow local industries, and inciting a mob attack against operatives on duty.  This happened few days after the Unit arrested 14 suspects for smuggling contraband items estimated at the Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N101.5million.

The Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the FOU, Comptroller Umar Mohammed Dahiru, made this known through the Public Relations Officer, Mr. Jerry Attah, explaining that the Unit, through its interventions, recovered N30.1million from vehicles, other goods that tried to beat the system from the seaports and border stations in the guise of false declaration, undervaluation and shortchange in duty payment to government, making a cumulative of N131.7million in the month of September, 2016.

He said, “In the month of September 2016 alone, about 98 different seizures were recorded, comprising vegetable oil, foreign  rice, frozen poultry products, fairly used vehicles popularly known as tokunbo and general merchandise. The Unit has what it takes to suppress smuggling within its areas of jurisdiction in the South West zones. The dare devil smugglers who see ‘ember’ months as a peak period for nefarious acts should  desist from such illegal business, as the Unit has deployed tactical strategies to make them incur losses”.

On what led to the mob attack, he said, “On 13 October 2016, our field operatives on a tip off trailed some smugglers to Alakuko /Kola area of Agege, Lagos and intercepted two vehicles laden with smuggled rice. While taking the seized goods to the office, one of the suspects incited a mob attack against our operatives who were armed with various dangerous weapons such as guns, cutlasses, broken bottle, sticks, stones among others, which resulted to a shootout between our men and the smugglers. While some of these hoodlums confronted our operatives, others rescued one of the arrested vehicles loaded with smuggled rice.