Vehicles, Rice, Others Seized by Customs
The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, announced it has confiscated 34 different brands of old and new vehicles, foreign parboiled rice and other items from smugglers.
Usman Yahaya, the Acting Customs Area Controller, FOU, disclosed this in a statement released by Peter Duniya, the Public Relations Officer, FOU.
Yahaya said that the seizure was made at Ido-Eruwa road, while the items seized were 34 different brands of new and used vehicles that contained secondhand clothes, Indian hemp and foreign parboiled rice.
He said: “I welcome you to this historic press briefing which is aimed at showcasing a large scale of smuggled vehicles laden with different kinds of contraband goods. Some economic saboteurs met their waterloo when our operatives acted based on credible information, made a single seizure at Ido, Eruwa Road-Ibadan of Oyo State. The contraband includes 34 different brands of both new and used vehicles laden with banned items such as second hand clothes, foreign parboiled rice and Indian hemp.”
Yahaya disclosed that the custom operatives faced challenges from smugglers who in support of the hoodlums in the process of getting the contraband to the Customs warehouse in Lagos.
“Our operatives were met with stiff resistance from a combination of smugglers, hoodlums and villagers. However, with the application of high level of professionalism, the patrol teams were able to bring all the vehicles down to Lagos without any casualty.”
He, therefore, warned smugglers to stop this act of sabotaging the government policies of making Nigeria self-sufficient in food production.
“While we appreciate the support and the cooperation of patriotic members of the public in carrying out our mandate by providing timely and useful information, however, recalcitrant economic saboteurs should note that, they would continue to count their losses because we are better mobilised, organised and backed by the extant laws to be always ahead of them,” he concluded.