Smuggling in North Central drops by 15 per cent

The Coordinator, Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT) of Sector Three, Olugboyega Peters, has announced a 15 per cent decrease in smuggling activities since April 1, 2021, along the borders of Kwara, Kogi, Benue and Niger states, which are under his jurisdiction.

Peters, during a media briefing yesterday at the headquarters of the North Central zone of JBPT, Nigeria Customs Services (NCS), Ilorin, said the drop in the smuggling activities could not be removed from the proactiveness of his team and the sensitisation programmes they embarked upon with monarchs of relevant border settlements in the area.

“Around April this year, there was a time, in three weeks, we made fantastic seizures. On one night, 13 vehicles were impounded in Kwara alone. Today, we have made another tremendous seizure. The smugglers have seen that it is no longer business as usual in Kwara, Niger, Benue and Kogi states.

“Generally, if you look at the smuggling rate in our area of operations we can say that smuggling had gone down by 15 per cent from what it used to be in the past. We had embarked on sensitisation with traditional rulers and religious leaders. It is now yielding good results. The smugglers are changing their styles on daily basis, but we are far ahead of them,” he said.  

The coordinator, while praising the existing synergy among security agencies in the patrol, urged Nigerians to handle the issue of security with more diligence.

“We all know what is happening in the country and the world today. Security should therefore be the duties of all. It has been a difficult time for the nation, but in the midst of this, there are some unscrupulous elements trying to detail the effort of the sector in meeting its statutory responsibilities and we have been dealing with them decisively,” he added.

According to him, the sector has made appreciable progress in curbing smuggling by recording a total number of 35 seizures of various prohibited items within the last quarter with a total Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N28.21 million.

The seized items include 637 bags of 50kg foreign rice, 795 kegs of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), 15 used vehicles, 14 cartons of condensed milk, four cartons of batteries, 114 tins of tomato puree and three bags of sugar.

He added: “Despite the series of attacks by dare-devil smugglers/hoodlums, the sector will not be distracted from executing its mandate.

“To this end, anyone caught disrupting our officers in the line of duty, or perpetuating nefarious activities of smuggling and so on, shall be made to face the law.”