The disregard for the consequences of smuggling has thrown smugglers in the Ogun Area 1 Customs Command into a colossal loss of 25,906 bags of foreign parboiled rice of 50kg each and 11,645 kegs of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) of 25kg to the Service in the first six months of the year 2022.
These translated to an equivalent of 43 trailer loads and nine tankers respectively, the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Command, Comptroller Bamidele Makinde, has revealed.
Makinde, at a press conference held at the operational headquarters of the Command in Abeokuta on Wednesday, 20 July disclosed that the cumulative Duty Paid Value (DPV) for all seized contrabands within the period amounted to Three Billion, Four Hundred Million, Two Hundred and Twenty-Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Seven Naira, Zero Kobo (N3,400,226,707.00).
While making a comparison of the command’s achievements for 2021 and 2022, the Customs boss observed that there was a significant increase in revenue collection and the value of seizures recorded.
According to him, “The revenue generated from January to June last year was N15,261,074.00 compared to this year’s revenue of N29,940,146.50. Similarly, the N3,400,226,797 generated as estimated Duty Paid Value (DPV) of items seized during the period under review, against the N834,765,273.00 made same period in 2021, was 400%”.
From import duties and auction sales of seized PMS alone, the Command generated a whopping Twenty-Nine Million, Nine Hundred and Forty Thousand, One Hundred Forty-Six Naira, Fifty Kobo (N29,940,146.50).
Other items seized during the period under review, according to the CAC, are 1433 cartons of frozen poultry products; 72 units of foreign used and means of conveyance, including a Marcopolo bus; 20 units of motorcycles, used as means of conveying smuggled goods; 1,400 packets of illicit drugs; 2,250 sachets of Tramadol and 168 packets of Codeine.
Among other seizures were 289 cartons of tomato paste; 343 cartons of foreign wine; 258 sacks and 661 wraps of Cannabis Sativa; 140 pieces of used tyres; 34 bales of second-hand clothes; 113 sacks and 36 ‘Ghana Must Go Bags’ of used footwear; 64 sacks, 2,218 pairs of footwear; 328 cartons, 320 sacks and 72 pairs of footwear;180 pieces of female handbags; 375 bales, 925 pieces of textile and 900 pieces of matches.
Comptroller Makinde stated that the achievements were made as a result of concerted efforts made towards continuous stakeholder engagement and the management’s deployment of intelligence in all the operations across the state, structural reorganisation of the Command, improved motivation of officers by the NCS management “as exemplified by the recently allocated operational vehicles to the Command and provision of accommodation in various outstations within the Command”.
Makinde added that the command would continue to dialogue, engage, sensitise and educate the public on the socio/economic implications of smuggling as well as performing its statutory function of enforcing compliance in line with government fiscal policies.
“We shall strengthen the Customs-Community Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) within our capacity”, he said, noting that, “As part of our stakeholders’ engagement, we paid courtesy visits to traditional rulers in various communities in the state and sought their support in combating smuggling, even as we urged them to educate their subjects on the menace of smuggling and incessant attacks on security operatives in the course of discharging their statutory duties.
“We also visited heads of various security agencies for synergy and collaboration in the state”, the CAC said.
The Customs boss thanked and appreciated the continuous support of the CGC, Col Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), his management team and gallant officers and men of the Command. while also appreciating critical stakeholders, members of the press, other security agencies, community leaders and traditional rulers for their continuous collaborative efforts and synergy with the Service while carrying out our statutory mandate in the state.