The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Lagos State, has seized items worth N4.5bn duty paid value and recovered N192m as revenue in January 2022.
During his first media briefing in the state, the Acting Controller, Deputy Comptroller Hussein Ejibunu, disclosed that four officers attached to the unit lost their lives in the fight against smuggling in 2021.
He stated that a total of 23 suspected smugglers were arrested, adding that five of them were granted administrative bail.
Ejibunu noted that the remaining 18 suspects were still in the unit’s custody.
He said, “The breakdown of the seizures included 9,697 bags of 50kg rice; 3,173 cartons of basmati rice at 5kg each; 297 bags of 25kg foreign parboiled rice; 1,076 kegs of 25 litres of PMS; 195 bales of used clothes; 51 parcels of Indian hemp of 39.5kg.
“Others are 68 sacks of used clothes; 2,535 pieces of used tyres; 17 units of used vehicles; 206 used compressors; 7,557,400 tablets of 225mg tramadol; seven units of used motorcycles; 21 bales of new bedsheets and 57 units of used plasma TV.”
He said the unit’s anti-smuggling and revenue recovery activities would increase in 2022 due to the support and logistic upgrade it received from the Nigeria Customs Service Management.