By Isaac Anumihe
Following a groundswell of condemnations trailing the raid on shops in Sango Ota Market, Customs Controller, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Haruna Mamudu, yesterday, told the traders to come with genuine importation documents to claim their goods rather than taking to unlawful protests.
He said Customs’ action was in conformity with the law of Nigeria as enshrined in Sections 147, 148, and 158 of the Customs Excise Management Act (CEMA), Cap C45 LFN 2004. Mamudu commended the officers and men of the unit for living up to their statutory responsibilities in suppressing smuggling, blocking all revenue leakages and enhancing trade facilitation towards sustaining best international standards.
The Comptroller, however, thanked the Comptroller General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), for his effort in recognising hard work and diligence to duty without any compromise.
According to him, the unit intercepted various contrabands and other goods on detention with a duty paid value (DPV) of N713,838,950.
Also, the unit recovered N650,314,436.90 from duty payments and demand notices on general goods that tried to beat the system from seaports, airports and border stations in the guise of false declaration, transfer of value, and shortchange in duty payment meant for the Federal Government, resulting in a cumulative value of N1,364,153,386.90.
“In the months under review, 197 different seizures were recorded comprising foreign parboiled rice, frozen poultry products, vegetable oil, smuggled vehicles, Indian hemp, arms, fake pharmaceutical/medicaments and various general merchandise,” he said.
In a statement, Public Relations Officer of the unit, Mr. Jerry Attah, said that 2,300 bags of 50kg of foreign parboiled rice with a DPV of N149,500,000 are still under seal in an unnamed warehouse in Lagos awaiting relevant importation document for further necessary action.
Also, Demand Notices (DN) of over N100 million have been issued to two auto dealers/assemblers under Customs’ seal awaiting payment for infractions on their import transactions, while some are still undergoing court trials.
Over 16x40ft containers under detention are on thorough investigation and appropriate DN would be raised and seizures effected where applicable.
“You will recall that the unit evacuated 1,870 bags of smuggled foreign parboiled rice and 43 jerry cans of vegetable oil from the front of an unnamed warehouse in Sango Ota Motor Park in Ogun State by our field operatives based on information, monitoring and trailing of some dare devil smugglers’ activities through unapproved routes using commercial motorcycles popularly known as “Okada” and smaller vehicles ferrying on a very high speed and other concealment methods in carrying out their nefarious acts,” he said.
Recall that on February 21, this year, operatives of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), invaded a warehouse at the popular Sango Market, where some bags of smuggled rice were stored and carted away over 1,000 bags of rice allegedly smuggled through the border.
It was gathered that the officials of the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja, stormed the market in the night and seized about 1,000 bags of rice allegedly smuggled through the border.
Daily Sun learnt that over 15 trailers and five Hilux vans were loaded with smuggled rice recovered from the warehouse located inside the market. The operation, which started from midnight lasted till the following morning, which prompted a protest by the traders who took to the streets, paralysing business activities in and around the market.
The leader of the market women, Alhaja Salako, lamented that the Customs officers came in the middle of the night, broke into their shops and carted away rice worth several millions of naira.
She said the Customs officers came with armed military men, broke their safe and went away with huge sums of money yet to be ascertained.