[PHOTOS] Smuggling: Ogun Customs boss reaffirms command’s commitment to combating illegal trade

Comptroller Bamidele Makinde, Customs Area Controller for the Ogun 1 Area Command, has reiterated that the command will continue to suppress smuggling activities by wielding the big stick on unscrupulous traders who engage in illicit trades across the state’s six land borders.

Bamidele stated this on Tuesday in Abeokuta while briefing reporters on the activities of the Nigeria Customs Service’s Ogun 1 Area Command in April and May 2023.

The Area Controller vowed that officers and men of the command will continue to repress activities capable of causing economic sabotage and financial loss to the Federal Government, notwithstanding the physical attacks by the smugglers on the operatives of NCS.

Bamidele informed the newsmen that during the period review, spectacular seizures of prohibited items with the Total Duty Payable Value (DPV) of N335,855,989.00 were recorded.

According to him, the vigilant officers of the command intercepted and seized three luxury buses which were being smuggled into the country through the Ohunbe border on May 15, 2023.

He added that two 2022 Model Toyota Hiace buses, with chassis numbers JTHN9CPOP6018610 and JTGHN9CP7P6019835, were also intercepted and seized on a bush path along Sawonjo/Imasayi communities on May 29.

“Other seizures recorded are 6,924 bags of smuggled foreign parboiled rice of 50kg each which is equivalent to 11 trailer loads; kegs of PMS; used tyres; Cannabis Sativa and other prohibited items. The DPV of the seizures made with strategic deployment of intelligence across the state is N335,855,989.00”, Makinde further stated.

On revenue generation, he disclosed that the Ogun 1 Area Command of the NCS generated the sum of N34,174,105.00 within the period under review. He, however, pointed out that there is a differential of N23,558,587, which is about a 69% increase in the sum of revenue generated in the corresponding period in 2022.

Bamidele, who lauded sister security agencies for their maximum cooperation and support, however, noted that the command had engaged compliant traders, and reduced roadblocks and documentation bottlenecks, to enhance trade facilitation with the view to increasing export trade, which in turn would contribute to increasing the country’s revenue and GDP.