Customs intensifies efforts in Niger, intercepts smugglers, seizes rice, others

The Niger State Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service says it has confiscated several goods worth over N19m in the past three months.

The items included 732 bags of imported rice weighing 50 kilogrammes each and with duty value of N13,510,400; 11 used vehicles worth N5,535,300; and 175 litres of vegetable oil with duty value of N84,000.

The Area Comptroller, Yusuf Kassim, who supervises Niger, Kogi and Kwara states, disclosed this in Minna on Friday, adding that the command had introduced more comprehensive security measures that helped in the seizure of the contraband from the smugglers.

Kassim also disclosed that the command had generated N814.7m in the first quarter of 2019, more than what it generated in the past three years.

He said, “Our borders are intact. We have deployed officers to man the border post in Mokwa – Jebba and other borders within our command.”

The comptroller said, “In January 2019, the command generated N210,466,789.18, which surpassed the N94,567,317.31 generated in the same month of last year. In February this year, which was election month, we generated N4,307,586.56 more than the N142,215,970.9 that was made in the same month last year.

“By March, we returned and recovered from the heavy impact of the elections and generated N599,981,188.03, which surpassed that of March last year. Last March was N475, 192,799.89. It is our hope that our joint efforts in this year will yield better results as we anticipate going beyond the revenue achieved in the year 2018.”