By Aluta News
June 6, 2022
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Niger Area Command says it has seized more than 101 units of exotic cars, cloths, rugs and consumables worth N755.3 million in different part of the are.
According to the service, the consumables include bottle water, wines, ketchup, spaghetti, basmati rice, tomato paste, foreign parboiled rice, whipped cream, vegetable oil and others.
Presenting they seized items at the command’s headquarters, Minna before newsmen on Monday, Comptroller Abubakar Adamu said that the command had deployed measures toward ensuring that “the area becomes unbearable to any form of smuggling activities”.
According to him, 140 rolls of foreign rugs, 50 bales of second-hand clothing, 920 kegs of petrol, eight motorcycles and 200 pieces of used tyres are also seized.
“The Cumulative Duty Paid Value (DPV) for all the seized items amounted to N755,377,866,” Adamu said.
The controller said that this success was recorded due to the massive intelligence deployed during the operations, adding that by applying the rules of engagement during the operations, no casualties were recorded.
He also stated that with the posting of the Post Clearance Audit (PCA) and valuation officers to the command, the command had been able to recover N74,919,135 from demand notices and disposal of seized petrol.
Adamu warned the smugglers that the federal government’s directive on border closure is still in force in Babanna which is the only border station in the command, stressing that there would be no export or import activities through border until further notice.
“Let me again warn smugglers and criminal elements that we will always discover all illegal routes they use for their nefarious activities, make seizures, arrest and cripple their illegitimacy”, he said.
Adamu further said that the command had contacted traditional rulers, especially those at border areas to warn their wards and subjects to desist from smuggling while the youth in the border communities are being enlightened on the ills of smuggling and other related vices to the Nigerian economy.
NAN
See also Ex-FUNAAB DVC, Prof Lateef assumes duty as NSPRI ED/CEO BY SEGUN OLATUNJI April 24, 2023 Federal Government has appointed former Deputy Vice Chancellor (Development), Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB), Prof Sanni Oladimeji Lateef, as the new Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute (NSPRI). Consequently, Prof Lateef will on Tuesday assume duty at the Ilorin, Kwara State, headquarters of NSPRI. He obtained his First Degree from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria in 1990. He finished from the institution's Department of Food Science and Technology with a Second Class Upper Division. He proceeded to the Department of Food Technology, University of Ibadan, where he obtained Master and PhD Degrees in 1993 and 1999, respectively. He returned to his Alma mata, FUNAAB in 1993, where he was employed as an Assistant Lecturer. He was promoted Professor of Food Science and Technology in 2008. In 2015, Prof Lateef presented his Inaugural Lecture and in 2017, he became Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development). Prof Lateef won the 2008 Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Award Regional Technology Development in Sub Saharan Africa. This multiple international award-winner has over 27 years' experience in research, consultancy and collaborations as a post-harvest expert in tropical root crops mostly implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Root Crop and Natural Resources Institute, United Kingdom. Prof Lateef is also a project leader to multi-million dollar EU/Gates Foundation sponsored projects since 2008 to date. He was a resource person for the World Bank upscaling of flash drying experience in West Africa. He also served as the Principal Investigator, Food Developers Initiative and Food Science and Nutrition Network sponsored by the Association of African Universities in Nigeria, Benin and Sierra Leone and Food Science and Nutrition Network in West Africa, March 2010 to August 2011 under the sponsorship of African Universities/UK DFID. The new NSPRI boss is also the Vice Chair, Steering Committee of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development, and former National President, Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology. Prof Lateef is a Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Science (FAS) and President of the national body of the FUNAAB Alumni Association.
