The Adamawa and Taraba states Area Command of the Nigerian customs service has recorded nineteen seizures of assorted items with Duty paid Value of over thirteen million naira from smugglers.
The Area Comptroller, Salisu Abdullahi at a press conference in Yola, Adamawa State Capital said the seized items include cartons of insecticides, bags of foreign rice and over fifteen thousand liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) packed in drums and Jerry Cans.
He said intelligent reports have revealed that the smuggling of PMS products into West Africa sub-region still persist, owing to the fact that Nigeria’s PMS is of high quality and some of the product could be illegally sourced.
“Illicit source and trade of crude oil and its by-products had afflicted remarkable economic losses on Nigerians and lawful stakeholders in the oil and gas industry. On the account of the inflammable nature of the PMS, most of it had been disposed of in accordance with the extant laws and the accrued process remitted into the federation account,” he said
The fraction of the remaining PMS was auctioned immediately after the press briefing.
Comptroller Abdullahi noted that amidst the raid by the combatant officers, none of the smugglers were arrested as they fled and abandoned the items as they always prefer when overrun by the Customs enforcement units.
The Command has vowed to clamp down on all smugglers, maintaining that the nation cannot afford to allow saboteurs to take over its economy.
Abdullahi charged officers and men of the command to remain resolute and maintain the tempo in the fight against the menace of smuggling activities across the border lines and to ensure that smuggling operations become a difficult venture for those engaging in it and those intending to go into it.
The command also destroyed the donkey skin that was earlier apprehended by the enforcement unit of the service in September at the Sahuda, Nigeria-Cameroon border.
Members of the management of the Nigerian Agricultural and Quarantine Service, Adamawa State Command, witnessed the destruction of the Donkey Skin since it concerns their mandate.
