By Kenneth Jukpor
In the last two weeks, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Seme Border Area Command, has intercepted some contraband items worth over N10 million, including women hair, table waters, expired ginger drinks, foreign parboiled rice, among others.
The Customs Area Controller (CAC) at the Command, Comptroller Mohammed Garba, made this known at a press briefing in Seme, yesterday.
According to him, most of the banned substance were smuggled into Nigeria with dutible goods through the border. He noted that the command intercepted table waters and ginger drinks with inscriptions in Chinese.
He said that the smugglers also used hair attachment to conceal the contraband water, noting that any durable goods used to concealed prohibited good would be forfeited with the contraband.
Garba said that National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies (NDLEA) was in a better position to explain if the intercepted table water was actually drinkable or not.
“The Seme command intercepted 7,524 foreign table water valued at N1.7 million, 83 cartons of Amira/Makoko soap, worth 1.8 million, 1,718 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice, 26 bales of used clothes of N918,000, 14 cartons of Nitro faminne soap worth N169,000.
“The intercepted items also include 13 bags of expired rice worth N54,000, eight sacks of used shoes worth 98,000, 65 pieces of six yards textile worth N63,000, 11 cartons of insecticide worth 13,000.
“Also among the seizures are 864 of 30 litters cans of sulphuric acid worth N3.5 million, two sacks of rubber slippers worth N38,000 and two cartons OT lemon cream worth N77,000,” Garba said.
However, he said that the command generated a sum of N4 billion in the first half of 2019 while noting that the command had been surpassing its monthly revenue target for the last three months.
He explained that the amount generated represented about 64 per cent of the annual target allotted.
The command boss also reiterated the benefit the country would gain from the recented launched inter-connectivity between Nigerian Customs and the Republic of Benin Customs..
He, however, called on the Benin counterparts to respect the International law guiding the transfer of cargo from one customs administration to another.
Garba added that over the years, transit provisions have been codified by a number of international conventions.
“These are the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Kyoto Convention and the 1982 Geneva Convention of the harmonisation of frontier control of goods.”
He said that the Article V of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) provides the freedom of transit, “there shall be freedom of transit through the territory of each contracting party, via the routes most convenient for international transit for traffic in transit”
He affirmed the command continuous seizures until the right signal was achieved to discourage other people from indulging in the smuggling.
He said that a total of 37 vehicles had been released to successful bidders of the auctions vehicles domiciled at the command.
Garba, however, urged the general public to be vigilant against internet fraudsters who prey on unsuspecting members of public with the intention to dupe them with tricks of auction of seized goods.
Garba urges freight forwarder to desist from acts that was against the law while urging members of the public to stop consuming smuggled goods as it was dangerous to their health.
In his response, the Seme Coordinator of NAFDAC official, Dr Nurudeen Audu, said import and export of water remained banned.
Audu said that the agency would take the liquid to the laboratory in Oshodi to ascertain the efficacy of the content in the bottle.
He said that sulphuric acid was restricted by NAFDAC, adding that before one could import and clear the sulphuric acid, National Security Agency would issue permit as well as end users certificate.
Audu said that the certificate of the import had expired since 2015 but the owner still smuggle the products into the country..
