The Ogun 1 Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has seized 21 trailer loads of foreign parboiled rice in the first quarter of 2023.
The Controller, Bamidele Makinde, confirmed this during a press conference he addressed at the NCS headquarters in Abeokuta on Thursday.
According to Makinde, the Command recorded a total seizure of 181 goods, including 12,610 bags of smuggled rice (50kg and 25kg), which he said was an equivalent of 21 trailer loads.
“It is pertinent to state that from the above total bags of rice, we made a spectacular seizure of 740 bags of Chinese rice of 25kg each, stockpiled in a warehouse in Sagamu axis of Ogun State on Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 2230hrs,” Makinde said, asking Nigerians to be careful in order not to consume anything that could “hamper their health.”
The NCS boss stated that 1,1446 cartons of imported cigarettes labelled and addressed in Chinese language were also impounded within the period under review.
Other seizures made in the first three months of this year are: 77,250 litres of petrol; 29 units of used vehicles used in conveying smuggled goods; 29 pieces of artifacts; 73 bales of second-hand clothing; 14 sacks of foreign used shoes; 900 pieces of foreign used tyres; 1,120 frozen poultry products; 240 pieces of body creams and 1,382 wraps of cannabis sativa, Makinde told newsmen.
He added that the duty payable value (DPV) of the seized items is N704,482,601, representing 61 per cent increase compared to the (N432,337,690) DPV of the items seized in the first quarter of 2022.
Makinde explained that the command generated a total sum of N44,857,053.50 as revenue between January and March, 2023; consisting of duties collected on merchandise in baggage, auction sales of scrap vehicles and petroleum products.
“In comparison, the above generated revenue is higher than the sum of N5,512,901.50 collected as revenue same period in the year 2022,” he said.
While reiterating that the revenue activities of the command comprises importation and exportation of legitimate goods under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and assessment of merchandise in baggage, the Controller maintained that the command is working hard to promote export business in order to shore up the forex earning of the country.
