Ogun Customs impound over 100 trailers of foreign rice, others

The Ogun 1 Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has said the service has impounded not less than 101 trailers of foreign parboiled rice within a period of 13 months.

The Controller, Dera Nnadi, disclosed this on Monday at a press conference held at the command’s headquarters in Idiroko, Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Nnadi explained that 96 trailer loads of rice comprise 57,758 bags of 50kg each were seized in 2021, while five trailer loads comprise 3,008 bags of rice were intercepted in January 2022.

The NCS boss noted that the command also stopped the illegal importation of “poultry products, used tyres, second hand clothing, dangerous drugs (tramadol and cannabis sativa), palm oil, petroleum products, assorted soaps and cream.”

The controller maintained that 1,389 seizures were made within the period under review, adding that the duty paid value of all the items seized is N1.48billion.

Speaking further, Nnadi noted that the major source of revenue of the Command, which is import and export, have not been optimized since the closure of the land borders by the Federal Government in 2019.

He added that NCS in Ogun was able to generate N43,921,205.50 through “fees collected from the auction sales of seized items, especially petroleum products, scrap metals and other perishable items.”

While commending his men and officers, Nnadi observed that “there is a remarkable increase in the number and quantities of seizures recorded in the month of January, 2022.”

He noted, “Aggressive stakeholder’s engagement; deployment of intelligence in all the operations; structural reorganization of the command; improved motivation of officers by the NCS management as exemplified by the operational vehicles allocated to the command.”