From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The Kebbi State Area Command of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have seized assorted items worth N91,518,958 within two weeks.
New Controller of the Command, Comptroller Ben Oramalugo, who confirmed this during his maiden press briefing at the headquarters of the Command, explained that section 167 of Customs and Excise management Act empower the customs to seize goods improperly imported in contravene of extant laws.
He said “following my directive to our operatives to intensify vigilance across vast bushes and all the waterways within Kebbi State immediately when I took over two weeks ago,our undaunted effort has started yielding positive result in anti smuggling activities.
“During the period, we have recorded 24 siezures of assorted items which include 8,975 litres of PMS loaded in 25- litre kegs, 189 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 71 bags of imported sugar 42 bale’s of second hand clothing and 36 sacks of used shoes.
“We also seized 110 solar batteries, 105 cartons of medicine, 7 used vehicles ad means of conveyance and one tanker truck under detention which is suspected to have been snuggled into the country in contravention of Federal Government’s extant policy, prohibiting importation of vehicles through land borders.
“The duty paid value of the said items stands at N91,518,928. The seized PMS is going to be auctioned immediately”, he said.
The Comptroller added that the command would continue to create an avenue where only permissable goods from other neighbouring countries will be traced without hindrance to achieve the command’s set target of N1.058 billion.
“And with the required right psychology and physical strength,it is realisable. Finally, I would like to use this medium to express our profound gratitude to our sister agencies,other units in the service for their support and mutual collaboration, through intelligence sharing in our onerous task of maintaining national security,” he said.