The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Strike Force Team ‘A’ said it impounded one pump action rifle, one locally made pistol, and 14 live cartridges as well as seized contraband goods with Duty Paid Value, DPV worth N390 million.
The Coordinator of the Team, Mohammed Sani Yusuf, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Lagos, on Thursday said that the Team also recovered N748.6 million as underpayment for goods cleared from the seaports and border posts.
Yusuf explained that the goods impounded by the Team includes 1500 x 50-kilogram bags of foreign parboiled rice, 839 bales of used clothes, 3,525 litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, 900 bags of cement; used to conceal rice, 1,670 Mumrite tomato paste, 500 Mumrite Sardine, and smuggled vehicles.
According to him, “The illicit goods imported into the country with their attending effects mostly end up either in our homes or in the neighborhood; causing a wide range of issues ranging from social to psychological crises.
“Our efforts at ensuring that the local industries are protected from unhealthy foreign competition and other forms of social security require a strong partnership between our operatives and members of the public in areas of information sharing and moral support.
“In the aspect of revenue, the sum of Seven Hundred and Fourty-eight Million, Six Hundred and Seventy-nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Thirty-three Naira (N748,679,337) was made through documentary checks and issuance of demand notices on consignments that were found to have been short-paid.
“It is sad to note that some Nigerians would pay all duties and levies payable to the Customs authorities of other countries they import from, while on the other hand, they make conscious efforts to evade such payments into the federal coffers.
“As we are in the last quarter of the year; approaching the yuletide period, where recalcitrant traders and importers’ quest to make more profits through smuggling is at its peak. I would use this opportunity to appeal to importers and agents to be patriotic by making sincere declarations, and pay their duties accurately,” he noted.
