The Nigerian Customs Service wants the citizens’ commitment to anti- smuggling efforts that will add value to the nation’s local production capacity and boost economic growth.
The Customs Area Controller, Ogun Area One Command, Mr Bamidele Makinde who made the call while presenting the scorecard of his command for the first half of the year 2022 to journalists in Abeokuta said about 30 million naira revenue was generated during the period.
Mr Makinde who said that the cumulative duty paid value for the seizures recorded by the command in the last six months was more than 3.4 billion naira said the intercepted contrabands included petrol, amounting to about 9 tankers, illicit drugs and other consumables.
He emphasized that the Idi Iroko border was opened to aid legitimate businesses, noting that the command had intercepted 43 trailer loads of foreign parboiled rice from gaining access into the Nigerian market at the detriment of the Federal government’s rice revolution programme.
The Customs Area Controller while stating the challenges of expansive border routes called for the introduction of Information and Communication Technology, ICT enhanced security management to strengthen land border operations.
He reaffirmed the Command’s readiness to strengthen Customs community relations and corporate social responsibility, enhanced intelligence with continuous stakeholders engagement and management among other strategies for enforcing compliance in line with government’s fiscal policy.
Modupeola Sobukonla
