The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has announced that its Seme area command has made a series of seizures of contraband items worth N1.8 billion from January 23 to September 8, 2023.
The Customs area comptroller, Dera Nandi, disclosed this to the press in Seme on Friday. He said the seized items include:
- 9,500 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice, valued at N312.2 million
- 13,835 jerrycans of petrol, equivalent to 415,050 litres or 13 tankers, valued at N738.3 million
- 15,389 assorted goods, such as textiles, shoes, bags, and electronics
- 41 parcels of cannabis sativa and 9,657 tablets of Tramadol and ecstasy
- 864 packs of cigarettes
He also revealed that the command intercepted 1,364 jerrycans of petrol, equivalent to 40,800 litres or one tanker, along the Badagry Creek on September 8. The petrol had a duty paid value of N24.7 million.
He said the total duty paid value for the items seized in the nine-month period was N1.8 billion.
Nandi said the command had surpassed its revenue target for the year 2023, which was N1.96 billion. He said the command had collected N1.9 billion as of September 8, representing 97.2% of the target.
He attributed the impressive performance to the efforts of the command’s leadership and staff, as well as the cooperation of the stakeholders.
He also said the command had made some remarkable seizures in the area of anti-smuggling operation, such as fake six million U.S. dollars, 15 fake international passports and 10 driver’s licences, and donkey skins in January 2023.
He said the acting Comptroller-General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, had commended and congratulated the officers involved in these seizures. He presented commendation and congratulatory letters to 18 beneficiaries at the event.
