Ogun customs seizes 21 trucks of illegally imported rice, weeds, and other items

In the first three months of 2023, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Ogun 1 Area Command has intercepted 21 trailer loads of imported parboiled rice.

This was verified by the Controller, Bamidele Makinde, during a news conference on Thursday at the NCS headquarters in Abeokuta.

Makinde stated that the Command seized 181 items in total, which included 12,610 sacks of illegal rice (50kg and 25kg), or the equivalent of 21 caravan loads.

Makinde urged Nigerians to exercise caution and avoid consuming anything that could ‘hamper their health’ in a statement that read, ‘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’.

The head of NCS reported that during the time period under consideration, 1,1446 cartons of imported cigarettes with Chinese labels and addresses were also impounded.

According to Makinde, other items seized in the first three months of this year include 77,250 litres of gasoline, 29 units of pre-owned vehicles used to transport contraband, 29 pieces of artefacts, 73 bales of used 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.

The duty payable value (DPV) of the commodities confiscated is N704,482,601, up 61% from the (N432,337,690) DPV of the items seized in the first quarter of 2022, he continued.

According to Makinde, the command made N44,857,053.50 in total income between January and March 2023 from the duties it collected on goods packed in luggage, the sale of trash cars at auction, and the sale of petroleum products.

The sum of N5,512,901.50 that was collected as revenue during the same period in 2022 is larger than the revenue produced above, he added.

The Controller reiterated that the command’s revenue-generating activities include the importation and exportation of legal goods under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and the assessment of goods carried in baggage, but he also insisted that the command is actively working to boost exports in order to support the nation’s foreign exchange earnings.