Acting Controller FOU ZONE A, DC Yahaya UB.
Story by Dili Utomi.
THE FOU ZONE ‘A’ SEIZES EXPLOSIVES, TRAMADOL, ITEMS ALL WORTH #3.1B IN 2 MONTHS.
The federal operations unit zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service has continued in its active interventionist mode of intercepting goods that have illegally found their ways into the country through the zone’s areas of jurisdiction. The zone’s Area Controller, Yahaya U.B. in a press briefing, reiterated the zone’s commitment to reducing smuggling to its barest minimum and help in contributing their bit towards building a more robust economy. Comptroller Yahaya detailed the most recent feat of his zone as he stated .
“From 9th February, 2021, till date, several seizures were made including eighty (80) means of conveyance. This is simply a pointer to the fact that smugglers are unrelenting and adamant at complying with the extant laws on international trade. It is important to note that, importation of items such as foreign frozen poultry products, secondhand clothing, spaghetti, toothpicks, used vehicles and
rice across land the borders, and many more remains banned.
Within the period under review, the Unit recorded the following seizures:20,538 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 3,106 cartons of frozen poultry product, 1,488 kegs of PMS at 25 litres each, 1,035 bales of secondhand clothing, 77 cartons of tin tomatoes, 2,843.6 kg of Indian Hemp, 877 bundles of printed wax/textile materials, 29 different brands of used
vehicles, 2,969 cartons of Eva soap, 42 drums of carbide (explosives), 549 cartons of Tramadol and 12 units of used motorcycles with DPV of N 3.1billion.
CAC Yahaya with some of the seized items.
The zone also got in the area of interventions regarding Demand Notices arising from Under-payments, the sum of #242,251,506.00 during the period under review.
The CAC continued by saying that
“Section 158 of Customs and Excise Management Act CAP C45 LFN 2004 as
amended, has given us powers to patrol and search everywhere without restrictions. Section 147 of the same CEMA empowers us to enter into any premises without search warrant, provided there is credible information on prohibited items deposited therein for us to strike. The power to seize and
prosecute offenders is also embedded in Sections 46 and 47 respectively. It is instructive to know that offenders are liable to prosecution without option of fine”.
He went further to say that “A total of Nine (9) suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures. Two (2) out of the Nine (9) have been charged to Court while the other Seven (7) are on
Administrative Bail”.
Comptroller Yahaya admonished all by saying that “Everyone should be worried about smuggling because it begets unemployment, drug addiction, criminality, proliferation of light and small arms, substandard goods, and so on. Just like crime fighting which is the responsibility of everyone and not only security agents, the same applies to smuggling. You can
imagine what would have happened if 42 drums of Carbide (explosives) had entered wrong hands”.
He appealed to everyone in the society by saying that
“We need your continuous cooperation by providing credible information to continue to hold sway in the fight against smuggling”.
