Customs Intercepts Contrabands Worth N4. 9bn In Ogun

Ogun Area 1 Command of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has disclosed that a total number of 44,933 bags of foreign parboiled rice illegally being imported into the country from the neighbouring Republic of Benin were intercepted by its anti-smuggling operatives between 6th February, 2022 and December 6, 2022.

The command’s comptroller Bamidele Makinde made the disclosure when he briefed journalists yesterday at Idiroko border town in the Ipokia local government area of the state on the activities of his command within the past nine months when he assumed duty in the command.

Makinde said the foreign parboiled rice, an equivalent of 73 trailer trucks with each bag weighing 50kg, was intercepted along with other contrabands, which overall Duty Payable Value (DPV) worth over N4.886 billion in a total number of 842 seizures carried out by his command within the period under review.

This is just as the controller revealed that the NCS Ogun Area 1 Command was able to generate a total sum of over N58. 676 million as revenue since April, 2022 when the Federal Government gave the directive for the reopening of the Idiroko border till date.

He saidt the revenue generated accrued from the auction and sales of perishable and other highly combustible items such as the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) being smuggled out of Nigeria, but intercepted by operatives of the command.

Makinde said his command was able to achieve the feat through collaborative efforts of the traditional rulers in border communities, sister security agencies, as well as through an “intensive round-the-clock surveillance and patrol” but not without its attendant collateral damages to the officers and men of the command.