The Comptroller-General of Customs Strike Force in Zone ‘A’ has intercepted contrabands and raised Debit Notes on under-declaration of cargoes worth N767m.
While the contrabands were smuggled into the country from Benin Republic, the DN raised were from 13 containers falsely and under-declared at the nation’s seaports in the last three weeks.
Speaking on Wednesday while unveiling the seizure, the coordinator of the Strike Force, Deputy Comptroller Ahmadu Shuaibu, said N350m was raised from DN in cargoes from Tincan and Apapa seaports.
He also explained that N417m was the Duty Paid Value of contrabands smuggled into the country from neigbouring countries.
According to him, 2,147 cartons of cosmetics, vehicles of different models, 1,185 bags of smuggled rice, 1,320 bales of textiles materials falsely declared as machinery were seized in the weeks under review.
He said, “These are some of our anti-smuggling effort. We have containers loaded with footwear and we know shoe is a contraband and these particular goods were falsely declared and by our statue book, classified foot wears are contrabands.”
He added, “The Duty Paid Value of 935 Cartons of shoes is N32m and from the ICT section, the intervention we have made so far are on 13 containers of various items that are contraband as well as falsely declared worth over N350m.”
“Also, we intercepted 756 bales of lace materials with DPV of N34m and the reason for seizure was that they were falsely declared as machinery. If the declaration had been honest, we wouldn’t have seized such consignment because it isn’t on the contraband list.”
Shuaibu advised smugglers to desist from unlawful practice and enjoined importers and clearing agents to embrace honest declaration.
He said, “We want honest declaration. Importers and agents should help the government by making accurate declaration so that the right duty is collected for the benefit of all because there would be no need for seizure if they had openly declared their goods and paid duty correctly.”
Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service, Deputy Comptroller Joseph Attah, said the interception of contrabands and DN of N767m raised in last three weeks explained the relevance of the strike force team to the Nigerian economy.
