CUSTOMS Zone ‘C’ RECORDS N500M IN 3 MONTHS

…As Dimka prepares 56 suspects for the gulag

There is a strong indication that smugglers operating in the South-eastern axis of Nigeria may have lost to the Customs anti-smuggling onslaught, fortunes close to N500 million, between January and March, this year.

Ifeoma Onuigbo

An insight of the smugglers’ loss during the period showed a total of 140 seizures by the Customs, consisting of at least, several choice vehicles,  bales of expensive clothes, 1500 cartons of frozen poultry and the arrest of not fewer than 56 suspects.

The head of Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’, an anti-smuggling unit of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), in  Owerri, Comptroller Dimka Victor David confirmed this, while taking a bird’s eye view of the Command’s performance in the first quarter of 2015; stressing: “We have put the new patrol vans we received from the CGC to good use!”.

Comptroller Dimka indicated that the unit recorded a total of 140 seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N501, 026, 822:00; made 56 arrest of suspects; and now has 56 cases pending in courts in connection with the items seized. 

Dimka gave a breakdown of the seizures made, showing 37 in the month of January with a DPV of N176,483,600.00; a total of 40 seizures with a DPV of N136,708,650 in the month of February; and in March, upped the scale by another 63 seizures with a DPV of N187,834,572.00.

“The latter, is a component of 108 vehicles, three trucks comprising 384 bags of 50kg foreign rice, two trucks of 2,126 cartons of imported frozen poultry products, three trucks of 1,181 pieces of used tyres; three trucks containing 780 bales of textile materials; two truckloads of cartons of foreign vegetable oil with other items such as used hand bags, cartons of foreign beverages and 1,755 pieces of imported foot wear.

“Specifically, the seizures made in March comprised a total of 51 vehicles, 184 pieces of used tyres, 284 (50kg) bags of foreign rice; 1,755 pieces of used foot wears; 10 cartons of foreign beverages, and a truck load with 1,500 cartons of imported frozen poultry product”, highlighted Dimka, reiterating the determination of his officers and men to rid the country of the cancer of smuggling.

He warned those still trapped in the illegal business of smuggling to desist from the criminal act forthwith in their own interest, stressing that a total of 56 suspects presently arrested in connection with the seizures were already cooling their heels in detention even as investigations had commenced in earnest, noting that those found guilty would be made to face the full weight of the law to serve as deterrent to others,

The FOU Zone ‘C’ boss lauded the unrelenting support of the Nigeria Customs Service management, stating that the Service under the able-leadership of Comptroller-General of Customs, Alhaji Abdullahi Inde Dikko’s provisions of 20 new pick up vehicles and other logistics inclusive, has seriously made the command better equipped, trained and sophisticated to dislodge smugglers wherever they operate, within the axis.

He also enjoined members of the public with useful information about smuggling to always make them available to his men for necessary action, assuring that such classified information would consistently be treated with the utmost confidentiality.