Smugglers forfeit N1.28bn worth of used vehicles, rice in 3 months

Information from the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone C of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), shows that smugglers have forfeited vehicles and bags of rice worth N1.28 billion to the Federal Government between January and March, 2021.

The vehicles and bags of rice, according to the authority in charge of the Federal Operations Unit, Zone C, were being smuggled to some states in the South-East before they were intercepted.

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The Authority explained that while N7.6 million was realised from Debit Note (DN) raised on undervalued cargos, the sum of N1.280 billion was the value of vehicles and bags of rice forfeited.

The Customs Area Controller, Zone C, Comptroller Yusuf Lawal, in a statement said the forfeiture would deter criminals from preventing the government from realizing the actual accrued revenue.

He said, “The detained and seized items include:  2,976 bags of 50kg each of foreign parboiled rice, 1,024 cartons of Colcaps medicament without NAFDAC certification, 290 cartons of Foreign Eva Soap, 204 Cartons of Foreign Tomatoes Paste, 130 Jumbo bales of used clothing.

“Others are 5,200 live ammunition cartridges, 6 exotic vehicles, one Toyota land cruiser bullet proof 2019 model without End User Certificate from NSA, one Toyota Hilux 2020 model, one Toyota Corolla 2018 model among others.”