The Nigerian Customs Service’s Ogun 1 Area Command has seized 23 trailers, including Dangote trucks that were allegedly filled with imported rice and concealed behind sacks of cement.
At a news conference on the command’s accomplishments in the third quarter of the year held in idi-Iroko, Ipokia Local Government, Ogun State, the area controller, Bamidele Makinde, revealed this information.
Speaking about the Dangote vehicles that were seized, Makinde stated that preliminary investigations had revealed that the trucks weren’t actually owned by the company, but rather were being driven by people who had a franchise arrangement to transport cement on its behalf.
He said “these people you see smuggling with trucks with Dangote imprinted on them are not real Dangote trucks. They are not owned by the company, but they operate under a franchise agreement.”
Three trucks loaded with 513 bags of smuggled rice were intercepted during anti-smuggling operations along the Obada axis and Ibese/Itori road, Yewa-North Local Government Area of Ogun State, according to the customs chief who listed the command’s seizures. This amounts to approximately 38 trailer loads of smuggled foreign rice.
He added “the command recorded seizures of 1,550 pieces of used tyres and 180 bales of used clothings in a warehouse situated along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.
“Details of other seizures and their DPVs are 227 seizures, comprising 16 units of vehicles used as means of conveyance; two units of used vehicles (Tokunbo); 2,706 kegs (67,650 Litres) of Premium Motor Spirit, eight units of motorcycles (Means of Conveyance),” Makinde explained.”
Makinde also cited more products that had been impounded, such as 89 bales of textile (wrapper), 201 bales and 76 bags of used apparel, 80 kegs of vegetable oil (25 liters each), and more.
He further revealed that N38,537,267 in import duties and other earnings were derived from the selling of gasoline at auction.
The controller warned that the command would stop at nothing to ensure that the state was free of contrabands and urged smugglers to find alternative respectable enterprises.
