Authority in charge of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) on Wednesday, said it intercepted about N1.021 billion worth of goods from smugglers in states in the South-West in the last one month.
This is even it also recovered N44 million from undervalued goods within the period under review.
It said the amount recovered would have gone into the private pockets of dubious importers who he said are hell-bent on destroying the economy of the nation.
Addressing newsmen on some of the achievements of the unit in the last one month, Acting Controller of FOU Zone A, Hussein Kehinde Ejibunu, also revealed that 14 persons were arrested for their alleged involvement in the unwholesome importation.
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Ejibunu said out of the 14 persons, 13 of them have been granted administrative bail, while the remaining one is helping officers of the unit to crack some cases.
He said the efforts of the unit have yielded seizures worth a total duty paid value (DPV) of N1,021,263,350.
He said aside, the unit was also able to achieve the collection of 43,530,867.25 through issued uncompromising demand notices (DN) to collect the detected and identified shortfalls in duty payments.