BY DAUD OLATUNJI

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun State Command impounded 65 trailer-loads of 600 bags of rice each from smugglers between January and November. The comptroller in charge of the state command, Haruna Mamudu, said this at the Idiroko border station of the NCS while briefing journalists about its activities during the period. Mamudu explained that the 65 trailers carried 39,000 bags of rice when they were impounded from the smugglers. He, however, said that 51 of 65 trailers had been condemned by court while the remaining 14 would meet the same fate. The command also said it recorded 1,482 seizures between December 2013 and November 2014, with duty paid value payable of N1.6bn.

While showing journalists some of the seizures made about a week ago, he said not less than 20 cars, with each filled with 48 bags of rice, were impounded.

Mamudu said, “These smugglers don’t use big vehicles, they use small cars. They re-configured the cars to fit into their illicit trade. From one of the cars, we just offloaded 48 bags of smuggled rice.

“These boys who work for some rice merchants prefer to take illegal routes than to pay the Customs duties on the goods.”

While talking about seized cars, Mamudu warned those travelling to Republic of Benin to buy Tokunbo vehicles to pay duties, saying, if they were caught trying to circumvent the process by taking the vehicles through bush paths, they would have themselves to blame.