The Ogun 1 Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), under the leadership of Customs Area Controller Bamidele Makinde, said it seized over 2,000 bags of smuggled rice and generated N13,370,229 as revenue in the month of July.
The revenue, DAILY POST learnt, was generated from baggage assessment and proceeds from auction sales of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
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A statement by the command’s Public Relations Officer, Hammed Oloyede, quoted Makinde as saying that the Ogun 1 Command seized “2,113 bags of foreign parboiled rice of 50kg each, 21 units of vehicles (means of conveyance and imported used cars), 17,950 litres of PMS, and 1,416 pieces of used tyres, among others.”
Makinde said the seizures were made from different areas across Ogun through intelligence gathering, adding that the estimated payable duty on the items is N106,757,592.
Acting comptroller-general of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, has paraded two suspects arrested in connection with the interception of 2, 940 parcels of weeds suspected to be Indian Hemp that was on transit along the Sokoto – Ijoun highway in the Yewa North Local government Area of Ogun State.
Adeniyi said the contraband, intercepted at the early hours of Monday, was “ingeniously concealed” with a heap of pineapple fruits loaded in an unregistered white Fiat bus with chassis number 2FA23000006141966.
Meanwhile, LEADERSHIP gathered that the substance, smuggled from the Republic of Benin, was on transit to the Ogere Remo trailer park in Ogun State where it was intended to be transported to the Northern part of the country via the state highway corridors before the Customs’ FOU operatives on routine patrol caught up with it at about 03:15am around the Sokoto – Ijoun road.
Adeniyi identified the suspects arrested in Ogun as Mr. Akeem olatunde –a driver and Mr. Abdul Nurudeen Adedeji – a passenger, have been taken into custody pending further investigation.
The Customs’ Acting C.G, who was in the state for the first official visit to NCS Command 2, had earlier same Monday met with stakeholders, particularly representatives Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), where he assured them of the readiness of the Service to provide the needed ambience for investors and their businesses to thrive in Nigeria.
Noting that Customs can only increase its revenue base when investors’ businesses thrive, Adeniyi revealed that five days earlier the Western Marine Command of the Service intercepted a total of N650 Million worth Indian Hemp weighing 11, 539kg.
