The leadership of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Zone ‘C’ Owerri has rolled out its activities and achievement during the first quarter of 2021, that is January to March 2021.
The Controller, Yusuf Lawal in a press conference averred that “Following our anti-smuggling drives, between January to March 2021, we have intercepted various contraband within our areas of jurisdiction which covers south-south/south east zones with a duty paid value of N1,280,885,011.00.
“Also, based on our intervention we recovered the sum of N7,557,731.00 from demand notices raised, making a cumulative sum of One Billion, Two Hundred and Eighty Eight Million, Four Hundred and Forty Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty Two Naira only (N1,288,442,742.00) within the months under review.
“The detained and seized items include: 2,976 bags of 50kg each of foreign parboiled rice, 1,024 cartons of Colcaps medicament without NAFDAC certification, 290 cartons of Foreign Eva Soap, 204 Cartons of Foreign Tomatoes Paste, 130 Jumbo bales of used clothing, 5,200 live ammunition cartridges, 6 exotic vehicles; one Toyota land cruiser bullet proof 2019 model without End User Certificate from NSA, one Toyota Hilux 2020 model, one Toyota Corolla 2018 model among others.
According to Llawal, “This feat wouldn’t have been possible without the logistics support from the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd) and the entire Management of the NCS. Let me use this opportunity to appreciate you, the media for your continuous rapport and further seek for a fair and balanced reportage of our activities.
“I urge all well-meaning Nigerians to support the Service in the fight against smuggling by providing credible and timely intelligence that will help the Unit reduce smuggling to its barest minimum as we hope to improve more in the second quarter by intensifying our surveillance,” the Controller noted.
