BY CHISOM NWATU
The Lagos State Command of Nigerian Custom Service (NCS) said it made seizures of items valued at N6.6 billion in the last two months of its operations.
The NCS has responsibility for revenue collection on import and excise duties and other taxes and levies, and accounting, including the regulation of anti-smuggling activities, across the country.
Mohammed Sani Yusuf, comptroller general, Customs [CGC] Strike Force, Team A, disclosed this recently while taking journalists around its warehouses in Ikeja and Ikorodu areas of Lagos State, respectively.
According to him, the seized items were smuggled into the country by dubious businessmen who would undermine the federal government’s economic policies for their own interest.
He disclosed that no fewer than 4,000 bags of foreign smuggled rice were withheld in its operations.
Yusuf also revealed that some of the seized items include 200 milligrams of sildenafil citrate, 40 cartons of tramadol, 1,613 cartons of codeine cough syrup and five cartons of hilly cutter; about 110 cartons of shoes, and ladies gel. Others are 1,030 slabs of donkey skin, 367 kilograms of cannabis sativa, as well as 285 bales of used clothes.
He further noted that the team collected N1.36 billion through demand notices [DN] from used valued cargos. Yusuf also explained that the amount collected from the demand notices would have ended in the pockets of those who were often in the practice of depriving the government of its legal revenue.
All the items contributed to Customs officers intercepting contrabands of over N6.6 billion in total value within two months in Lagos State.
