TheCable

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says items worth N13,749 million were seized in the last one month by the Adamawa/Taraba area command at the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

Salisu Abdullahi, comptroller of the Adamawa/Taraba area command, told journalists on Friday in Yola.

Abdullahi said aside from the items seized, customs also destroyed raw donkey skin in line with schedule 15 of NCS Act, 2023.

The comptroller said 19 cartoons of foreign insecticide and 26 bags of foreign parboiled rice were some of the contraband items seized within the period under review.

Other items seized by the NCS are 15,449 litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) packed in 17 200-litre drums, 475 25-litre and six 35-litre jerry cans, respectively.

None of the smugglers were arrested during the operation, according to Abdullahi who said they fled and abandoned the items.

“When overrun by our enforcement units, the smugglers always prefer to abandon their smuggled goods and flee in order to escape prosecution,” he said. 

“I want to bring to the notice of the general public that the command has vowed to clamp down on all smugglers. Nigeria cannot afford to allow it to take over the nation’s economy.”

Abdullahi urged patriotic Nigerians, stakeholders and all relevant security agencies at the command’s frontiers to continue to collaborate with customs in the battle against the menace of smuggling as the fight is not a one-man business.

Also, NCS comptroller-general, Adewale Adeniyi, was praised by Abdullahi for providing additional operational vehicles to his command.

He said the operatives’ efforts in combating smuggling activities have been strengthened by the vehicles, resulting in the seizures recorded in the last one month.

Abdullahi said until the menace of smuggling is significantly suppressed, the command will not relax its efforts.