The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) disclosed on Wednesday that it intercepted a Sienna bus with arms at Ijebu Ode, Ogun State, and before then had seized other smuggled goods with total duty paid value (DPV) of N462,708,875
The Acting Comptroller, Kehinde Hussein Ejibunu, who disclosed this during the maiden working visit of the Comptroller-General of the Service, Mr. Wale Adeniyi, to the Unit, said that the Customs operatives found in the bus 15 bulletproof jackets, 15 pieces of jack knives and 20 pieces of pistol pouches.
He listed other seizures recorded by the Unit as including I. 5,642 X 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice (equivalent to 9 trailer loads), 49 cartons of children school shoes, 181 (87 kg) parcels of Indian Hemp, 357 kegs X 5 litres of vegetable oil, unit of Honda Motorcycle, used (Tokunbo) vehicles and 18,925 litres (757 X 25 litres jerry cans of premium motor spirit).
The Comptroller also said the Unit recovered the sum of N66,493,346.41 from importers through issuance of demand notices (DN) as a result of underpayment; 13 suspects have been arrested as a result of the seizures, adding that their cases are being investigated and will be prosecuted.
On the seizures of cannabis sativa weighing 7,728 kilogrammes, he said the three suspects and the items have been handed over to officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Lagos State Command, for further investigation and prosecution.
He explained: “It is pertinent to know that the importation of all forms of bulletproof materials such as vests, ballistic materials and vehicles, as well as parts and accessories for all military armaments and hardware such as guns, arms and ammunition of all kinds; lethal and non-lethal requires an end-user certificate.
“An end-user certificate is applied to, and issued by the office of the national security adviser which loses its validity after one year from the issuance date. Hence, anyone importing a controlled item must do so within the validity period of the end-user certificate.
“Seizures recorded within the period under review are a reflection of officers’ commitment to duty, and no compromise posture in the discharge of our statutory responsibilities; aimed at protecting the national economy and preventing the importation of prohibited, and harmful goods”, Ejibunu added.
