Sector 3 of the Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT), North-Central Zone, with Headquarters in Kwara State has intercepted a luxury Bus popularly called “Marcopolo” along the Abuja-Lokoja highway, conveying forty-four (44) Bales of acidic second-hand clothing and sixteen (16) sacks of fairly used infectious shoes with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of Three Million, Six Hundred and Eighty Thousand Naira.
According to the JBPT Coordinator, Comptroller Olugboyega Peters, a total number of Three Thousand and Sixty-Eight litres of 25 litres each of PMS, totalling Seventy-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred (76,700,000) litres were also intercepted by his team.
“It is difficult to imagine that despite the current fuel scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in the country, some unpatriotic Nigerians still attempt to smuggle this product out of the country through our border. However, in line with the extant laws, most of the inflammable products have been auctioned to the public and with the amount generated as fees remitted to government coffers.” Olugboyega Peters noted.
Revealing further, the Coordinator showcased the interception of a trailer load with Five Hundred and Fifty foreign parboiled rice of 50kg each along Mokwa-Jebba Road with a DPV of Fourteen Million, Twenty-Five Thousand Naira (N14,025,000) and a Lexus SUV of Twenty One Million cost price was impounded for evading customs duty of N7.3 Million.
“The Nigeria Customs Service is been guided by the Customs and Excise Management Act Cap C45 LFN 2004 (CEMA) as amended which empowers officers e.g. Section 8 – Customs officers to have the power of police officers, Section 46- the power of forfeiture of goods improperly imported, Section 149-power to search vehicles and ship, Section 150-power to search persons, Section 158 power to patrol freely and Section 167 provision as to detention, seizures and condemnation of goods”, he stated.
Over One Hundred and Seven seizures were also recorded with a DPV of One Hundred and Thirty-Nine Million, Seven Hundred and Seven Thousand, Five Hundred Naira and they include; 16 used vehicles, 91 bales of secondhand clothing, 39 cartons of foreign tomato paste, 5 motorcycles and 11 Kegs of vegetable oil, among others.
Three (3) illegal immigrants (teenagers) between the ages of 16-18 years) were also arrested around the Babanna axis of the Sector coming from Benin, Edo State en route Burkina-Faso.
“After thorough investigation, it was discovered that the teenagers were been trafficked by a syndicate to Burkina-Faso. The teenagers were handed over to Nigeria Immigration Service as one of the agencies in the sector saddled with such responsibilities”, he said.
While thanking the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (Rtd), Office of National Security Adviser (ONSA), NIA, DSS, Immigration, Nigerian Police Force and other relevant sister agencies for their efforts, he assured that Sector 3 Team under his watch would maintain zero tolerance for smuggling, bearing in mind its negative implications on the national economic growth and development.