Customs seizes contraband items in Katsina

Bym Augustine Okezie, Katsina

The Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, katsina/Kaduna Area Command on Monday recorded a big haul in the seizure of various contraband items at various checking points and border routes between katsina and Niger Republic.

The Acting Deputy Controller of the Command, Dahiru Abdullahi Musa kirawa who conducted newsmen on Monday at the headquarters in Katsina on inspection of the seized items condemned the attitude of some business men who chose to smuggle banned items and evade tax payments on duty bound goods.

Some of the contrabands seized from the smugglers include 1365 bags of foreign rice, 295 jerry cans of vegetable oils, 53 bags of foreign sugar, 14 cartons of tiger battery, 8 J5 vehicles and 1 Truck of used second hand clothes and foot wears, 6 cars loaded with foreign macaroni.

Others include 6 used vehicles entering the country through land borders and a 30 seater bus arrested on unapproved routes and on land border with Niger Republic. Also some exotic cars like Mercedes C430 and 2015 models were equally seized alongside a Toyota Corolla 2019 models.

Another seizure made by the Agency is a fuel tanker carrying 33,000 liters of PMS that was arrested 16 km to Mar Bara border with Niger Republic in katsina state. The Vehicle was scheduled to discharge its contents in Jigawa state but was diverted to Katsina state to be smuggled across the border.

Read Also: Customs impound N501.6m worth of contraband

The Customs boss wondered the owners of the seized items evade using legal routes to import the items to enable government generate revenue to render social services to the people.

He said ’’if you have the money to purchase these types of vehicles and goods, why couldn’t you pay the legitimate taxes and rate to government to generate revenue’’

‘’use our ports which is user friendly, I am calling on those who have vehicles in detention to come forward and pay duty on them and collect them. Why don’t we take advantage of these laudable opportunities so that we can improve our economy?’’