In Kaduna, Customs Impound Contrabands Worth N1.667bn

The Comptroller, Federal Opýerations Unit (FOU) Zone B Kaduna State of the Nigeria Customs Service, Mustapha Sarkin- Kebbi, said the zone made seizures of smuggled goods worth over N1 billion from January to June this year.

The comptroller who disclosed this at a news briefing held in the state, said the seizures were made from January to June, 2020.

He disclosed that seized items totalled 625ý and that at least18 suspects were arrested within the period.

Sarkin-Kebbi listed some of the goods seized as 157 vehicles, 6,340 bags of rice, 2,276 kg of vegetable oil, 162 cartons of sugar and 2,252 cartons of Spaghetti and Macaroni.

Others are 1,324 cartons of soap, 1,713 bales of textiles materials, 394 cartons of pharmaceutical products including tramadol, 298 cartons of tomato paste, 270 used tyres, 1,167 bags of fertiliser, 291 jerry cans of PMS and 484 percels of Indian hemp.

“The total Duty Paid Value of the seizures made within the period under review is N1,668,014,050.00 as against 425 seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N762,051,950.00 recorded in same period in 2019,” he said.

While explaining that the zone doubled the DPV in ý2020 due to high value of items seized this year when compared to last year, the comptroller lamented that in the course of enforcement,

the zone ýlost one officer while two other were kidnapped, but had since regained their freedom.

He assured his officers and men’s commitment to protect the country’s borders against smugglers.