Customs records N622.4m seizures in September

The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A, said it made a series of seizures with a total duty paid value (DPV) of N622.4 million in September.

The acting Controller of the unit, Hussein Ejibunu, disclosed this to newsmen at the unit headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos.

Ejibunu said September marked the end of the third quarter of the year when smugglers showed more desperation, hence, the unit dealt an onslaught on smugglers and their collaborators.

He listed the seizures as 7,328 50kg bags of foreign rice, 121,550 litres of premium motor spirit, 68 cartons of frozen poultry products and 37 crates of eggs used to conceal rice. Others are 150 kilogram parcels of Indian Hemp, 10 pieces of military camouflage bags, six units of used cars (Tokunbo), a pump action rifle, two units of locally made guns and 35 live cartridges.

According to him, the Federal High Court passed three judgements in favour of the unit on three criminal cases while it secured the conviction of six people for being in possession of smuggled goods.

Ejibunu also disclosed that the unit recovered N107.8 million for the period under review.

“Smuggling of used clothes has economic and health implications on our people. The government in its wisdom wants the local textile industry to enjoy the protection and create more jobs for Nigerians from the cotton farms through the textile and garment factories to our markets.

“The very serious health implication of this act of textile smuggling is an exposure of users to skin diseases like scabies and fungal diseases, which can be transmitted by wearing unwashed second-hand clothes. This is coming at a time when the world is wary of monkeypox whose mode of transmission includes clothing,” he said.