The Nigerian Customs Service has intercepted 1,149 jerry cans, each containing 30 litres of petroleum products, at a border town in Sardauna Local Government Area of Taraba State.
The petrol, valued at N33.7 million, was intercepted by the Operation Whirlwind of the Customs Service under the Adamawa/Taraba Command at Kan-Iyaka, a border town between Nigeria and Cameroon Republic in Sardauna Local Government Area of the state.
The Customs operatives also arrested those behind the attempt to smuggle the petroleum product from Nigeria to Cameroon Republic.
Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs, while briefing journalists at the Customs House in Jalingo on Friday, said the interception was made possible due to the hard work and commitment of the officers of Operation Whirlwind and other security operatives in preventing smuggling across Nigerian borders.
He expressed satisfaction with the vigilance and courage exhibited by the officers while carrying out the mission that led to the interception of the petrol products.
The Comptroller-General further stated that in recent weeks, Customs had witnessed a troubling increase in petroleum smuggling activities across the North-East zone frontier, particularly along the Adamawa and Taraba corridors.
He stressed that targeted operations in those areas had revealed strategic transit points for cross-border petroleum diversion.
He said the activities of petrol smugglers were creating artificial scarcity of the product and distorting supply chains in vulnerable communities, adding that such activities also funded enterprises that undermined regional security.
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