By Agaju Madugba

Kaduna—The National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, has commended activities of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, in the fight against smuggling.

Reports indicate that men of the NCS recently discovered 75 illegal warehouses in Kano harbouring contraband textile materials worth about N319.9 billion.

“We commend the Customs for the seizure of the smuggled textile materials,” the textile union said in a  statement in Kaduna yesterday.

Describing smuggling as economic terrorism, the  statement signed by the NUTGTWN General Secretary, Comrade Issa Aremu, noted that threat to the realization of the great potential of Nigeria in textile production is high influx of counterfeit and smuggled goods.

He said: “Over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s huge market size is dominated by smuggled and counterfeit goods, killing local companies in Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Guzau, Aba and Port Harcourt, and millions of direct and indirect local jobs.

“Remarkably too, smuggling denies the government the much needed revenue in unpaid customs duties.

“According to the Comptroller General of Customs, Alhaji Diko Abdullahi, the duty value of the goods in one out of the uncovered 75 warehouses in Kano is N4.2bn.

“When we add the value duties of all the 75 warehouses, one will appreciate the enormous loss of revenue to the government.

“We are reassured by the Comptroller General of Custom’s resolve to prosecute the smugglers including the reported four Chinese nationals linked with the seized contraband textile materials in Kano.

“However, all the above efforts will be in vain unless the seized contraband textile materials are burnt in public like seized drugs, otherwise they will find their way to the market thereby defeating the ongoing efforts to curtail smuggling.

“We once again call on President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstitute the Presidential Task Force on destruction of seized textile materials once chaired by the current Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir  El-Rufai.”