By Godfrey Bivbere

Few days after the Task      Force on Physical Examination of Cargo in the nation’s ports set-up by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Dikko impounded 22 containers of illegal  imports; thetask force has again  intercepted eleven 20 footer containers of textile materials falsely declared as motor-cycle spare parts.

Textile material

Disclosing this in Lagos , Chairman of the Task Force and Assistant Comptroller General (ACG) in charge of Headquarters of the NCS, Tahir Musa, said the current seizure brings the total number of containers so far seized since the task force was constituted to 33.

The Customs boss said that the 33 containers has an estimated Duty Paid Value (DPV) of about N1 billion (One billion naira) while a Debit Note (D/N) amounting to N100 million and a substantial part of it has been paid.

The 11 containers which were impounded Monday were imported into the country from China by Kefel Ventures Ltd and Executive Trading; and the fact that both consignments were being cleared from the port by Globisco Nigeria Ltd fueled suspicion that all the goods belong to the same owner, Musa noted.

He also disclosed that six persons, three of who are Customs officers are presently in detention in connection with the seizure.
According to the Task Force Chairman, the importer’s agent did self assessment in a cyber cafer outside and took it to the arrested officers who used their access to the NCS system to clear the goods without examination while claiming that they have examined the seized items.

In his words, since the Task Force commenced operation on the 6th of December, 2010 “A total of about N100 million Debit Notes have been raised and issued with a substantial part of accounted for. 33 containers were seized with estimated Duty Paid Value of over N1 billion.”

“It is interesting to note that 22 of these containers contain textile materials, predominantly the African Print ( Ankara ), falsely declared as motor-cycle spare parts.”