Officers of the Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Lagos, have impounded contraband goods with Duty Paid Value, DPV, of N4.6 billion.
The Acting Customs Area Controller, Hussein Ejibunu, disclosed this to newsmen on Thursday in Lagos.
According to him, the seized items include 9,697 bags of rice at 50kg each, 3,173 cartons of basmati rice at 5kg each and 297 bags (25kg) Foreign Parboiled Rice and 1,076 kegs at 25 litres of Petroleum Motor Spirit, PMS.
Other are 195 bales of used clothes, 51 parcels (39.5KG) Indian hemp, 68 sacks of used clothes, 2,535 pieces of used tyres and 17 units of used vehicles.
Also impounded were 206 used compressors, 7,557,400 tablets of 225mg Tramadol, seven units of used motorcycles, 21 bales of new bed sheet and 57 units used plasma TV.
Mr Ejibunu, said 23 suspected smugglers were arrested, out of which five were given administrative bail, while 18 are in the unit’s custody.
He, however, disclosed that four Customs officers serving in the unit, lost their lives in the course of anti-smuggling activities in 2021.
Mr Ejibunu said the Unit recovered a total N192 million from various malpractices in import duties.
He expressed optimism that anti-smuggling and revenue recovery activities will increase this year, due to the support and logistics upgrade the command received from the NCS management.
