Customs F.O.U Zone ‘A’ Impounds Goods Worth N746 Million; Recovers N66 Million

The Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service in its unrelenting effort towards the suppression of smuggling has again, seized goods such as 8,309 bags of foreign parboiled rice equivalent to 14 trailer loads, 2,428 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS), 221 Cartons of foreign frozen poultry products amongst others.

According to the Acting Comptroller of the Unit, DC Hussein Ejibunu, the Seizures made in April 2023 had a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N746,157,425.

Revealing further, Ejibunu said, the Unit through the Federal High Court, secured eight convictions during the last ten months, while 48 different cases are at various stages of prosecution.

“While the smugglers planned to take us unaware during the religious festivities, our round-the-clock patrols were sustained and backed with intelligence even during the public holidays. Interestingly, the outcome of our unrelenting onslaught against smuggling is the remarkable drop evident in the number of seizures recorded with zero casualties,” he added.

In the Unit’s continuous quest to prevent revenue loss through various infractions such as; under-valuation, under-payments, and wrong classification, the sum of N66,726,153.35 was collected following the issuance of demand notices to defaulters.

“Successes recorded by this Unit in the suppression of desperate measures for economic criminality would not have been possible without the deployment of logistics support provided by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali, (Rtd) CFR, and his management team in the battle to protect our national economic interest.” Ejibunu reiterated.