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The Nigeria Customs Seme Area Command has intercepted one white Scania truck carrying rotten hide and skin popularly known as ‘Ponmo’, 146 parcels of cannabis concealed in one red Toyota Highlander jeep and 5,204 bags of 50kg foreign rice, which are equivalent to nine trailers smuggled into the country.
This was disclosed while addressing newsmen, by The Comptroller of the Command, Mohammed Uba. He said the intensified operation of the enforcement unit of the command has drastically reduced smuggling activities to the barest minimum because of the seizures by the command. These seizures made included 13x50kg bags of sugar with DPV of N301,965,1,078 cartons of poultry products worth N15,727,70, 55 cartons of spaghetti with DPV of N212,924, 97. cartons of soap worth N619,820, 59, cartons of insecticides with DPV of N761,365, 65×6 yards of textiles worth N419,396, others are 17 sacks of used clothes/shoes worth N435,897, four cartons of tinned tomatoes with DPV of N29,179, 36 bales of used cloths N1,942,920, 60 pieces of used tyres with a total DPV of N774,270, 669 packs of PVC carpet/foot mats worth N11,844,768, two cartons of cream with DPV of N18,066.
The Duty Paid Value (DPV) for the seized rice was over N70 million while the street DPV for the 146 parcels of cannabis was worth over N1.682 million.
CAC Uba added that nine trucks have been placed on detention due to short payment, adding that a total five vehicles had also been seized with duty paid value of N7,549,132 while the total DPV for the whole seizures within the three weeks under review was N112,486,270. One suspect was arrested in connection with one of the seizures. He further sounded a note of warning to those who engaged in illegal activities and other cross-border vices to avoid Seme border or risk arrest prosecution in the court of law.
The comptroller Mohammad Uba, assured members of both local and business communities that the command would increase dialogue, enlightenment and robust stakeholder engagements for seamless operations through the modern Joint Border Post, which is the first of its kind in the West African sub-region designed to promote regional integration, reduce clearing times at the border, increase government revenue, improve the free movement of persons and goods, eliminate corruption and loss of revenue at the borders.
This will ensure that our core mandate as directed is achieved. The holistic approach in executing the mandate of the service will lead to an all-encompassing result as revenue generation, suppression of smuggling and legitimate trade facilitation will be adequately enhanced at the Lagos –Abidjan corridor without compromising national security.
