By; NIYI OGUNGBOLA, Abeokuta
Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Ogun 1 Area Command, Idiroko has intercepted contrabands which Duty Payable Value (DPV) worth over N143 million in one month.
The command’s new Controller, Comptroller Bamidele Makinde disclosed this on Tuesday while briefing journalists on the activities of his command within the past 33 days when he assumed duty in the command.
Makinde, who conducted journalists round the seizures on Tuesday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, disclosed that a Police security van with registration marked: PF 1089 SPY, suspected to have belonged to one of the new generation banks, conveying 27 bags of foreign parboiled rice was among the 142 seizures recorded by his command within the period under review.
According to Makinde, a large quantity of weeds, suspected to be Cannabis Sativa, popularly referred to as Indian Hemp, packed into 133 sacks and 181 wraps in book sizes, as well as 26, 725 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (P.M.S), literally referred to as petroleum, loaded in 1, 069 kegs, weighing 25-litres each were among the seizures.
Other items included the year 2018 model Range Rover “Tokunbo” vehicle; 889 cartons of Frozen poultry products; 13 kegs of vegetable oil, packed in 25 liters each; 8 bale’s of second hand clothes, concealed in 19 “Ghana Must Go” sacks, as well as 18 units of vehicles used as means of conveyance among others.
The new NCS Ogun 1 Area Command Controller, who puts the total D.P.V. of the contrabands at N143, 905, 508. 00, however, commended efforts of the sister agencies for providing the needed reinforcement for the NCS in it’s effort at combating smuggling activities in the command.
While pledging to operates an open door policy, Makinde however, appealed to parents and guardians, particularly those residing at the border Communities to prevail on their children and other youths in the area embrace genuine trade and desist from seeing smuggling as means of livelihoods, stressing that such amounted to economic sabotage against the country.
He however, commended councils of traditional rulers, particularly those at the border communities for the existing collaboration with the NCS, assuring that he would maintain and build on the efforts laid by his predecessors towards overcoming the menace of smuggling in the command.
