By Godfrey Bivbere

Nigeria Customs Service

THE Comptroller-General of Customs Strike force in zone ‘A’ has said it raked in a total of N2.1m in the first months of the year from seized items. In spite of the lockdown occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, the team was not deterred as it combed the nooks and crannies of smugglers’ hideouts, intercepting uncustomed goods across the various states in the South West region.

Co-ordinator of the Strike force, Assistant Comptroller Abba Kakudi disclosed that his men have been pro-active in the anti-smuggling operations as it has depended majorly on intelligence as a critical tool of the onslaught on economic saboteurs.
He was not oblivious of the fact that smugglers were always perfecting their strategies to outwit the men of the service; but noted that his men were steps ahead of their tactics, a factor that has resulted in their huge seizures being show cased, in the period under consideration, grand total of the value of goods seized hit N2.1m.

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The mouth-watering seizures include unregistered drugs namely 474 cartons of Longsra tablets; 421 cartons of Heigra tablets loaded on one Iveco truck and 41,500 cartons of tomato puree worth N830 million. Others include more than 318 bags of 50kg foreign rice, and those of 25kg. Vegetable oil seized include 3,333 Jerry cans as well as 712 others of 25 litres.
The Strike force also said that Petroleum Motor Spirit, PMS, as 25 kegs of 25 litres of are in their custody. Smuggling of frozen products is on the Strike force’s radar as 227 cartons of the products were intercepted. 20 assorted vehicles were arrested during their operations.

Abba Kakudi, a soft spoken person, not given to bragging, with his team have made huge impact in so short a period they took over, maintaining the tempo of the operation from where Deputy Comptroller Yahaya left it. He insists that the seizure profile of his team will be the best sign post to rate the performance of the Strike force, adding that whatever effort they put in, must take into consideration the tenets of trade facilitation.

According to him, the Strike force will, however, not compromise on revenue generation as it is determined to recommend DN for any underpayments which are a devious means by which importers or agents defraud government through outright evasion of import duties or short payment.

With eagle-eye officers such as the officer in-charge of operation, Chief Supt Babale, Staff Officer Supt Enenuo, and Chief Supt Kazir, the team has made a lot of impact on issues of raising Debit Notes (DNs) thereby increasing revenue profile as well as seizures of various prohibited items in the period under consideration.