Godwin Oritse

THE Western Marine Command (WMC) of the Nigeria Customs Service has  intercepted a consignment of suspected generic substandard medicaments, just as it  apprehended a huge consignment of frozen poultry products worth about N9million.

The items were confiscated after a fierce  confrontation with smugglers along the Badagry-Lagos  waterways.
Disclosing this to Vanguard in Lagos recently, the Command’s Comptroller Alhaji Manman Bah said that the seized items have been destroyed under the supervision of officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and NCS.

Bah stated that the Customs will continue to exercise zero tolerance for any trade infractions, which will jeopardise efforts of the Federal Government (FG) to develop and grow its local livestock industry.

According to him, ‘The FG is very serious about its laws that bans the importation of frozen chickens and turkeys.
“This law is to protect our local poultry farms and indeed, our livestock industry.

“If these foreign poultry are allowed in,  you know what the implication will be for us all and our economy which our local industry cannot survive.

“It is the duty of the FG through the customs service, to protect our local industries. “We will apprehend and destroy seized items as we are doing now, anytime, anywhere, and prosecute offenders wherever we succeed in apprehending any’, He added that efforts to arrest the suspects during the operation failed.

Although no arrest has been made as at the time of filing this report, the Customs top brass disclosed that some of his men suffered some casualties as a result of the attacks from smugglers.

“ They are vicious and armed,they fight and attack us to secure their illegal wares, and you know, but we have the capability to withstand their attacks and in fact embark on thorough offensive.

“As an economic agency, our role is to abate criminality and so, we are always very tactical during operations while trying to avoid open confrontation whenever we can.

“In this particular instance, one of the smuggler tried to drown one of my officers by dragging him out into the water where they had serious scuffle but the officer escaped with minor injury.

“With the right sophisticated logistics such as the required customs Seafarer gun boat, we will be able to repel smugglers much more effectively and do much more sea and waterways patrol.