By Eguono Odjegba

Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, says it made a cumulative revenue recovery within the period under review amounting to a total of  N42,320,098.00 within October 2022 even as it arrested eleven suspects connected with seizures of questionable items made by it within the period under review.

The Unit Controller, Deputy Comptroller Hussein Ejibunu noted that but for the diligent and meticulous documentary checks by officers and men of the unit, above revenue receipts would have been lost to unscrupulous individuals, adding that its operatives also impounded a total of 3,116 cutlasses stocked piled in an abandoned property in Oja-Odan, a border community in Ogun State.

He expressed concern about the intent of importer of the cutlasses which he said may not be unconnected with planned attack and violence during the approaching 2023 general elections. 

Addressing the media yesterday at Ikeja, Ejibunu explained that the Customs Service will continue to remain a step ahead of unscrupulous elements bent on sabotaging the nation’s economy and national security. He further explained that the seizure of the cutlasses is to forestall deploying them to criminalities, noting that anybody laying claim to them should come to the unit with the relevant import approvals, including the End-User-Certificate issued by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

He gave the breakdown of seizures for the period under review to include 2x40ft containers of charcoal; 7,403 bags of 50kg of foreign parboiled rice; 2. 53,759 litrs of petroleum motor spirit (PMS); 121 cartons of frozen poultry product; 724 bales of used second hand clothing; 3 units of used motorcycles; 97 pieces of used tyres and 162 (96kg) parcels of Indian hemp.

Others are 11 kegs of 25 litres of vegetable oil; 13 units of used fridges; 700 rolls of cigarettes; 23 cartons of dates and 9 units of vehicles, with a duty paid value, DPV, of N671, 609,384.5.

This is even as the unapologetic anti-smuggling chief hinged the unit’s operations on the enabling powers of sections: 158, power to patrol freely, sections 160 – 163 (failure to pay duty on demand, untrue declarations, counterfeiting documents, false scales, etc of the Customs and Excise Management Act, CEMA, Cap C45 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 as amended. 

Maintaining that smuggling compromises national security, the NCS will continue to adopt cutting edge strategies to remain a step ahead in safe guarding the national economy, safety and security of Nigerians.

He said, “Having understood the unrepentant nature of some economic saboteurs’ increased desperation to smuggle and their quest to acquire wealth ahead of the festive period, this Unit had remained resolute in enforcing compliance with the federal government fiscal policies, Customs and Excise laws. 

“While doing this, we have evolved better strategies of being ahead of them; not only to seize their wares, but to get them arrested and prosecuted. 

“Let me remind you that smuggling in whatever guise or form, is an illegal activity that constitutes a crime against Customs extant laws. Primarily among other effects; smuggling compromises national security, robs the nation of her revenue, which consequently affects the provision of basic amenities and social services to the citizens, and it can also destroy your health through the importation of expired, fake, and other illicit drugs.”

He appealed to the trading community to be patriotic by making sincere declarations and by paying correct duties/levies, noting that anyone found culpable would be prosecuted in line with the extant laws.