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Seme Customs warns border communities against smuggling

By Sulaimon Salau
02 August 2017   |   3:12 am
The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has warned youths in the border communities around the Nigeria-Seme route to desist from smuggling activities or face the full wrath of the law.

Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali

The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has warned youths in the border communities around the Nigeria-Seme route to desist from smuggling activities or face the full wrath of the law.

The Customs Area Comptroller, Seme Command, Mohammed, Aliyu, who sounded this note of warning recently, said the Command had seized items such as: 3200 x 50KG bags of rice, 1000 cartons of frozen poultry products, which have since been destroyed in accordance with the extant laws. Also seized were: 720×25 jerry cans of vegetable oil and 57 bales of second hand clothing, with a total duty paid value of N54.4 million.

He said the Command is deploying all necessary tools to ensure that the core mandate of the Service (Revenue generation, facilitation of legitimate trade, and suppression of smuggling) amongst others is vigorously achieved.

Aliyu added that the ongoing aggressive patrol by the anti-smuggling operation unit of illegal routes and flanks of the border is yielding tremendous results, and has translated into the seizure of numerous items.

He said: “In order to key into the presidential mandate (Reform, Restructure and Revenue generation), smuggling activities have to be confronted headlong in order to prevent revenue leakages. This reality has necessitated the proactive approach of the enforcement unit to ensure smuggling activities is maximally suppressed in order to enhance and boost revenue generation,”

The Command’s helmsman, while exhibiting the seized items, charged all the officers and men to maintain the tempo of combating smuggling activities across the frontier.

He added that although the drastic reduction of economic activities through the corridor has impacted negatively on the revenue profile, the Command remains undaunted in ensuring that smuggling is suppressed to its barest minimum.

The Comptroller used the opportunity to also call on all concerned Nigerians, stakeholders and other relevant agencies at the borders, to help the Service in giving credible intelligence for all kinds of trans-border crimes to be nipped in the bud.

He reiterated that the Seme Command would continue to protect the Nigerian economy by ensuring that the local industries are protected to give employment opportunities to the teaming population and unemployed youths.

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