By Olasunkanmi Akoni
The Nigeria Customs Service, NIS, of the Federal Operations Unit Zone “A” Ikeja, Lagos, has made a total of 843 seizures of all kinds of prohibited goods worth several millions of naira between January to June 2010.

Area Comptroller of NIS, Federal Operations Unit Zone A, Mr Emma Kane, disclosed this Tuesday when a delegation of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Lagos State Council, led by its Chairman, Mr. Wahaab Oba, paid him a working visit in his Ikeja office.

Kane, who expressed satisfaction with the achievements so far by men of his command, said the goods were intercepted at various illegal/unapproved routes being used by smugglers.

He assured Nigerians that his unit was more than determined to bring the menace of smuggling activities to its barest minimum in the state and save the country from losses of revenue through the nefarious activities.

According to the Customs boss, N127,654,034.84 was collected from underpayments and fees from the seized goods.

The seized goods, he said, comprised textile materials, used tyres, vegetable oil, rice, used clothes, used shoes, motorcycles and vehicles among others.

“The total value of the goods is N453, 304, 222, the total duty is N88, 948,830 while duty paid value is N545,443,052.” Kane revealed.

Arrests 57 suspects

He explained that during the operations, a total number of 57 suspects were arrested most of whom had been released on bail, adding: “Three of those cases have been successfully prosecuted and won in court by the command.”

Stating that the command was not unaware of some accomplices within the service, the Customs boss said his command had begun a continuous exercise to rid the command of bad eggs to serve as deterrent to others.

Kane also blamed the porous nature of the nation’s borders to the rising rate of smuggling activities in the country, stressing that all hands most be on the deck to actually curtail the menace which he acknowledged is a global phenomenon.

He, therefore, urged the media and members of the public to assist the command in nipping smuggling and other nefarious activities in the bud by coming up with useful information that could lead to their arrest in the interest of the nation.

Kane assured the residents that the information would be treated with utmost confidence because the command is poised to sanitising the service.