The Nation Newspaper

Tag: contrabands

  • Customs impounds contrabands worth over N35m

    •Five smugglers aarrested

    The Kano/Jigawa Customs Area Command yesterday impounded 1,200 bags of foreign rice, 300 jerrycans of foreign vegetable oil, 100 bags of foreign sugar and 200 cartons of foreign spaghetti valued at over N35 million.

    Briefing reporters at the Bompai headquarters of the command, Comptroller Nasir Ahmad said five suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures.

    He said: “We have arrested five suspects so far. They will be prosecuted. We have our legal department and they are handling the matter.”

    Ahmad said the seizures were made by the patrol team on Daura Road, Katsina Road, Gwarzo Road in Kano and Babura border in Jigawa State.

    According to him, “we have 1, 200 bags of foreign rice worth N27 million, 300 jerrycans of foreign vegetable oil worth over N3.5 million, 100 bags of foreign sugar worth over N2million and 200 cartons of foreign spaghetti worth over N500, 000.

    “We also impounded 14 vehicles used in conveying the smuggled goods. Now, what we are trying to say is this, as long as they won’t stop smuggling, we won’t stop seizing them.

    “It is in their interest to stop smuggling and help the economy. It is in their interest to stop smuggling and help the economy of the North, because the North is the major producer of rice, besides Ebonyi State. Other states producing rice are in the North. Now, why are they killing the business?

    “As I said earlier, Customs is not here to kill businesses, Customs is here to promote genuine and legitimate trade and that is what we keep doing. If you are in legitimate business, we won’t come after you, we will encourage you and we will be with you. This is why we have incentives for those that are in genuine businesses. We provide fast-track for them to use.

    “But as long as you want to engage in smuggling, you will never be our friend and we will never be your friend. Now, to those that think they can just come after officers, we will come after you. You cannot kill our officers; you cannot maim our officers and go scot-free.

    “Anybody that does that, we will come right after you because this is not a personal job we are doing, this is a Federal Government job, and it is for the promotion of the economy.”

     

  • Dangote cement hands over drivers to Customs for carrying contrabands

    The transport section of Dangote Cement Ibese Plant has intercepted one of the company’s truck loaded with contrabands in Ibadan.

    The drivers were arrested and handed over the Nigerian customs for further investigations and prosecutions.

    The arrest was effected by a crack team of the company’s security personnel led by its Chief Security Officer, who acted on intelligence, bordering on misconduct by some of its drivers.

    Handing over the drivers and his motorboy to the Customs authorities, Assistant General Manager, in charge of Security Services, CSP Ali Garba, explained that the company has a surveillance section that monitors its trucks and drivers’ activities.

    He said: “On June 7, 2017 at about 1820 hours, intelligence information received by Dangote’s senior drivers in Ibese led to the interception of Dantrans truck No KMC 38 XR / ICT-13A-083 driven by a former and dismissed driver Ismaila Abubakar. The truck was loaded with frozen Turkey allegedly loaded at Iyana Isolo, Lagos State heading to Benin City, Edo State”

    He revealed that while Nasiru H. Ahmed 284393 is the bonafide driver to truck KMC 38 XR / ICT-13A-083, their preliminary investigation revealed that on  June 2,  2017, Ahmed loaded 900 bags of cement for Benin Depot.

    “At Kara Garage in Benin City, Nasiru H. Ahmed dropped from the vehicle and travelled to Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State, leaving the truck in the care of his motorboys –  BilyaminuAbdullahi and Bashiru – with the dismissed driver IsmailaAbubakar.”

    Unfortunately for the bonafide driver, IsmailaAbubakar drove the truck from Kara to Benin Depot for offloading the cement after removing truck tracking system and left it in Benin City.

    He said: “Investigation revealed further that instead of driving straight to the plant, they decided to go to Iyana-Isolo in Lagos State to lift frozen turkey to Benin City at the cost of N350,000, of which only N70,000 was paid as part-payment.”

     

     

  • Contrabands worth N219m seized as smugglers attack Customs men in Ogun

    Men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) were attacked by smugglers while on patrol along Ilaro/Oja Odan axis of Ogun State.

    The smugglers were said to have opened fire on sighting the customs men, who were on routine patrol of the area.

    The attack which occurred on Sunday March 26, 2107, left bullet holes on one of the customs’ operational vehicles.

    The operation led to the seizure of two vehicles stocked with assorted smuggled bags of rice.

    Speaking during a press briefing held at the Idiroko Customs Area Command, Controller of Customs in Ogun State, Mr Gangua Hassan, said his men were driving the vehicles stocked with rice to the Idi-Iroko area command, when they were ambushed by the fiendish smugglers.

    He explained that the smugglers escaped from the scene, while no life was lost.

    He said: ’’On March 26, 2017 at about 3 a.m, while on routine patrol along Ilaro-Oja- Odan axis, my officers intercepted two vehicles stocked with foreign bags of rice believed to have been smuggled into Nigeria. In the process of conveying the said items to Customs House in Idiroko, some hoodlums armed with dangerous weapons barricaded the road and subsequently opened fire on the officers. My gallant officers repelled the attack and managed to secure one of the two seized vehicles with partial damage to our official vehicle.

    ‘’You can imagine what would have been the fatality if my officers did not exercise caution in a life-threatening encounter with dare-devil smugglers and economic saboteurs. This is why the media has a major role to play in exposing the grave danger customs officers face in the discharge of their duty, especially in Ogun State.’’

    About seven vehicles loaded with assorted rice and frozen poultry products were intercepted and brought into the customs’ office in the course of the press briefing.

    Gangua also disclosed that despite the harsh economic situation of the country, the command recorded an impressive feat in its revenue generation and anti-smuggling operation between January and February this year.

    ‘’The Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service for the first two months of the year 2017 (January and February) recorded an_ impressive performance in the revenue generation and anti-smuggling campaign.

    ‘’In detailing the activity for the period of January and February 2017, the command collected N906, 684, 498.26. However, despite daunting economic challenges, the command is working assiduously towards achieving and even surpassing the monthly revenue target given to it.’’

    He noted that the increase in revenue generation was due to a renewed fight against smuggling activities in the command.

    ‘’The breakthrough of these gigantic successes is a manifestation of reinvigorated, aggressive and effective anti-smuggling strategy adopted by Ogun Area Command under my leadership,’’ he said.

    Speaking further, he said: ‘’In the anti-smuggling drive, a lot of successes are being recorded on daily basis. The tireless efforts by the officers and men of the command yielded a total of 344 seizures with Duty Paid Value of N219,813,85, from January 1 to March 26, 2017.The items seized include; rice, frozen poultry products, second hand shoes, vegetable oil, vehicles, motorcycles, second hand clothing, used female hand bags, cannabis, boat engines, second tyres, used fridges and freezers.’’

    Gangua added: ‘’The command made spectacular seizures of 14 units of vehicles, 823 bags of (50 kg) rice, 35 gallons (25 litres) of vegetable oil and 220 cartons of frozen poultry products with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N27,296,314 between March 20 to March 26,2017.As you can see, we still have about 1,800 bags of rice, frozen poultry products and some smuggled vehicles that are yet to be deposited in the Government Warehouse.’’

  • NESREA condemns burning of contrabands

    The National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) has said it is ready to collaborate with other agencies to stop the burning of contraband goods.

    The agency, he said, has bought an equipment on sustainable burning – the Air Curtain Burner, which controls the emission of air pollutants.

    Speaking with reporters, its Director-General, Dr Ngeri Benebo said NESREA’s collaboration with other agencies in the destruction of contraband was yielding positive results, noting that the culture of burning would soon be over.

    She said the agency’s sensitisation had made some achievements as the public would soon begin to appreciate the new method pf destroying prohibited goods.

    The NESREA said the agency was collaborating with the National Drugs and Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Nigerian Customs Service and NAFDAC on adopt the sustainable burning mechanism.

    She said the mechanism was introduced to safeguard the health of the people, noting that open burning is hazardous to health.

    “It is in recognition of the adverse impact of open burning that the Federal Government enacted the National Environmental (Control of Bush, Forest fire and Open Burning) Regulations.

    “It was, particularly, to stem the tide of the high incidence of pollution arising from induced human activities, including open burning.

    “This effort is aimed at minimising the destruction of the environment through fire outbreak, burning of material that may affect the ecosystem’s health through the emission of hazardous air pollutants.

    “We have observed overtime that the heavy human health and environmental cost arising from emissions and the resultant air pollution during disposal of contraband in open burning could no longer continue.

    “The accumulation of these particulates in the human respiratory system often leads to persistent cough, sneezing, wheezing and general body discomfort.

    “It also aggravates existing respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic bronchitis,” she said.