The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun Area Command, has vowed to track down smugglers that dealt a deadly machete cut on one of its officers recently, and make them to face wrath of the law.
Controller of the Command, Comptroller Madugu Sanni, while parading some seized items at its Idiroko office, in Ogun State, said: “We are on the trail of the smugglers because we cannot fold our hands and allow them to be attacking us. We will retaliate and get at them and kill them if possible, because they are killing us. We are not fighting the public but smugglers. We also call on the traditional rulers to discourage the activities of their wards that indulge in smuggling and perceive such as a legitimate way of livelihood.”
Some daredevil smugglers attacked a customs officer on the 7th February, between 0800-0900hours while intercepting a Toyota Highlander (2014) along Ibeji River around – Idogo – Ifoyintedo axis of the Command.
Sanni said the officer is responding to treatment, while full scale investigation is ongoing to ensure that such mindless, irresponsible and unpatriotic criminals are brought to book to face the full wrath of the law.
However, the Comptroller of Customs decried the spate of smuggling at the boarders, urging Nigerians to engage in local manufacturing rather than smuggling.
The seizures paraded include a brand new Range Rover 2018 model.
He said the seized Range Rover worth over N52 million was intercepted during a routine patrol by officers along the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway adding that no arrest was made as the smugglers fled into the bush on sighting the officers.
Other items seized are: 13 Tokunbo vehicles, 12 means of conveyance, 21 motorcycles, 1, 168 bags of foreign rice (50 kg each), 221 kegs of vegetable oil (25 liters each), five sacks secondhand shoes and two sacks of secondhand bags with a total Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N153.8 million at Idiroko axis of Ogun Area Command.
Sanni said: “We are busy making seizure, we are busy intercepting smugglers, we are busy arresting smugglers, we are calling on well meaning Nigerians to please help the NCS. They are attacking us. We are attacking them. We will continue to fight back. The law of the land forbids importation of vehicle and rice through the land borders. The Federal Government has invested so much into production of rice locally, likewise the states. How can we continue to depend on imported rice when we don’t know the source, we don’t know how long it has stayed before coming here, why cant we support the local production of rice in Nigeria,”
