N1 billion goods intercepted at Seme despite border closure

Authority in charge of the Seme Command of the Nigerian Customs Service, says it intercepted over N1 billion worth of contraband goods at Seme-Krake border despite the closure of the nation’s land borders.

The goods were intercepted between January to December, 2019 from criminals who the customs said attempted to smuggle them into Nigeria through bush parts

The Federal Government said that the country’s border will remain closed till January 30, 2020. It cited security reasons as well as refusal of some West Africa countries to comply with agreement reached on trade facilitation as reasons for the extension.

Customs Area Controller, Seme Area Command, Badagry, Comptroller Mohammed Uba Garba, said that the Command recorded remarkable achievement in its anti-smuggling crusades.

The Controller while reviewing the Command’s revenue profile said that the anti-smuggling operations yielded a total of 1302 seizures with the duty paid value (DPV) of N1.579 billion in the last 11 months.

He said that the seizures include the following;

• 28,180x50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice, equivalent to 47 trailerloads valued at more than N777 million.
• 140x50kg bags of sugar with value of N588,000,
• 62 used vehicles along with their means of conveyance valued at N222 million.
• 1100 bales of used clothing and 101 sacks of used clothing valued at N70.1 million
• 185 sacks of shoes, bags, belt, slippers both new and used valued at N27.6 million
• 1,539x6yrd, 30x7yrd, 16x6yrd textile materials and wrappers valued at N10.5 million
• 5,489 cartons of frozen poultry products valued at N49.4 million
• 397x25litres of vegetable oil, 9x10ltrs and 37x5ltrs of vegetable oil valued at N138.6 million
• 2,109x25litres of petrol valued at N7.6 million
• General merchandise 14, 955 items worth N234.3 million
• Parcels of hard drugs and narcotics valued at N37.8 million

He attributed the harvest of seizures recorded to the strategic policy measures put in place by the Command to tackle the menace of smuggling, irregular migrations and other trans-border crimes.

He further reiterated his commitment in ensuring that smuggling business becomes unattractive through vigorous community and public enlightenment, sensitization on the dangers of smuggling and its impact on economy and national security.

The comptroller urged economic saboteurs to take the advantage of various federal government programs on agriculture such as anchored borrowers for rice farming, growth enhancement support scheme (GESS), government enterprises and empowerment program  (GEEP) and many others and key into for legitimate earning.