In spite of the border closure to contain the spread of Coronavirus, the Seme Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has seized contraband goods with Duty Paid Value of over N77 million in the last one month.

The Nigeria-Benin Republic border was shut on March 21 following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

The Acting Customs Area Controller at the border, Mr Chedi Wada, said in Seme today that 95 suspected smugglers were arrested over the seizures.

He said that the contraband included 686 bags of imported 50kg rice, 259 cartons of frozen poultry products, over 360 sacks of textile materials and many other general merchandise goods.

Also read:  Seme Customs Command Seize contraband valued 249.9m

According to the Seme Customs boss, the smuggled goods have a total Duty Paid Value of N77, 867,771.

Chedi said that one of the challenges confronting the customs was the wrong notion by border communities who saw smuggling as their birthright.