…says it seized items worth N27.162bn in five months, N15.268bn donkey skin
By MATTHEW DIKE
The Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service has revealed why smugglers and host communities attack customs officers attached to the unit.
The FOU Zone ‘A’ Public Relations Officer, Mr. Jerry Attah, told our orrespondent that both the host communities, who believe that smuggling is their ‘birth right’ and the real smugglers, who depended on the illegal business as means of livelihood had attacked the officers and men while carrying out their legal duties of preventing the crime.
Attah said the unit impounded various contraband items valued at N27, 162,921,536.3k from January through May, 2019, adding that recording such a huge success against smuggling was not a child’s play.
Among the items seized by the FOU, Zone ‘A’ include donkey skin worth N15, 268,320,000.00 removed from a Lagos premises.
From January to March, 2019, the unit seized 710 cartons of Tramadol capsules and 510 cartons of various medicament, including Chaka Pain, Codeine and Really Extra valued at N2,725, 500,000.00.
The Controller of Customs, FOU, Zone ‘A’, Comptroller Aliu Mohammed, said that five suspects were arrested in connection with the medicament.
Comptroller Mohammed said that from April 20 to May 20, 2019, the unit impounded 440 cartons of Really Extra, and 210 cartons of CSK Codeine valued at N101, 600,000.00, bringing the DPV of all medicament recovered to a total N2,827, 100,000.00.
Mohammed said within this same period, the unit seized 29 units of exotic vehicles with D.P.V N712, 172, 706 but before then the customs had earlier from January through March seized 25 units of vehicles and the DPV was estimated at N111,060,895.00, while in the month of May the unit seized 11 motor vehicles with the DPV valued at N325, 162, 991.00. The total DPV of all the impounded vehicles from January to May was said to have amounted to N1,148,396,592.
The FOUÂ Zone ‘A’ controller further said that between January and March, his officers and men seized raw hide and skin worth N7,634,160, 000.00, while between April 20 and May 20, 2019, the unit impounded donkey skin valued at N15,268,320,000.00. All the DPV value of the raw skin hide, including the donkey skin, totaled N22,902,480,000.00.
From the month of January to March 2019, the FOU boss said that the unit seized 16,117 bags of foreign parboiled rice with DPV of N160,190,730.00, while in May alone, the unit impounded 5,861 bags (50kg each) of foreign parboiled rice valued at N77,671,729.3K. The value of all the bags of rice seized amounted to N237,862,459..00.
Between January and March this year, the unit also impounded wine/ alcoholic drinks with the DPV value of N15,192,400.00, frozen poultry products valued at N4,291,200.00; used tyres, N4,009,500.00; general goods/merchandise – 111 bales of used clothings, three sacks of footwear, and 210 kegs of vegetable oil of 25 litres each and 106 cartons of five litres each, all valued at N15,728,985.00. The seizure of the first quarter of the year amounted to N10, 670,133,710.00.
In May this year alone, FOU Zone ‘A’ impounded rethreaded and used tyres valued at N2, 732,400.00, narcotics, Indian hemp and hard drugs valued at N1,040,000.00, eight sacks of footwear valued N768,000.00, textile fabrics and articles thereof – six sacks of used clothes, 21 bales of used clothes and 11 bundles of new printed wax with the DPV amounting to N3,066,000.00; 20 kegs of 25 litres each of vegetable oil valued N189, 000.00, and five bags of sugar and salt worth N60, 000.00. The DPV of seized items in May amounted to N410, 690,120.3K.
The PRO of FOU, Zone ”A’, Ikeja, Attah while appealing to the general public to provide useful information to the customs service, noted that the constraints of the service included attacks by the host communities, who believed that smuggling was their ‘birth right.’
He also lamented the attacks by the smugglers, who in some cases, preferred to die rather than lose their smuggled items, adding that during an operation, recently, one of the customs officers attached to FOU, Zone ‘A’ was shot in the leg, but survived the attack.
He disclosed that some of the seized items and vehicles were intercepted and impounded in Ogun State, while some others were seized at the Seme border area and bush paths between Ogun and Lagos
states.
