Customs Intercepts Police Van Conveying Contrabands Worth N143.5m In Ogun

Ogun 1 Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Idiroko, Ogun State, on Tuesday, said it intercepted a police van conveying 27 bags foreign parboiled rice each weighing 50kg being imported into Nigeria.

This is just as the NCS command also disclosed that a total number of 5,420 bags of foreign parboiled rice, each weighing 50kg, representing nine full trailer trucks was intercepted by its anti-smuggling operatives within the past 33 days in Ogun State.

The new Controller of Customs in Ogun Area 1 Command, Comptroller Bamidele Makinde, made the disclosure on Tuesday while briefing journalists about the activities of the command within the past 33 days when he assumed duty in the command.

Makinde, who conducted journalists round the seizures in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, disclosed that a Police security van marked: PF 1089 SPY and suspected to have belonged to one of the new generation banks, was among the 143 seizures recorded by his command within the period under review.

Estimating the Duty Payable Value (DPV) of the total seizure to worth over N143, 905, 508. 00 Million, Makinde also disclosed that large quantity of weeds, suspected to be Cannabis Sativa, popularly referred to as Indian Hemp, packed into 133 sacks and 181 wraps in book sizes, as well as 26, 725 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (P.M.S), literally referred to as petroleum, loaded in 1, 069 kegs, weighing 25-litres each were among the seizures.

Other items included the year 2018 model Range Rover “Tokunbo” vehicle; 889 cartons of Frozen poultry products; 13 kegs of vegetable oil, packed in 25 liters each; 8 bale’s of second hand clothes, concealed in 19 “Ghana Must Go” sacks, as well as 18 units of vehicles used as means of conveyance among others.

The new NCS Controller, who attributed the feat to a collaborative efforts of all security operatives at the border, however, commended the sister agencies for providing the needed reinforcement for the NCS in it’s effort at combating smuggling activities in the command.

While pledging to operates an open door policy, Makinde also appealed to parents and guardians, particularly those residing at the border Communities to prevail on their children and other youths in the area embrace genuine trade and desist from seeing smuggling as means of livelihoods, stressing that such amounted to economic sabotage against the country.

He also commended councils of traditional rulers, particularly those at the border communities for the existing collaboration with the NCS, assuring that he would maintain and build on the efforts laid by his predecessors towards overcoming the menace of smuggling in the command.