The Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) currently warehouse about 5,646 expired bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice worth N124, 776, 600 in its warehouse .
The command also nabbed 806 loaves of cannabis with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N21,157,500 in August, 2018.
The
amphibian arm of the service said due to massive seizure in the
command, the warehouse had been filled up leaving no space for new
seizures
The expired bags of rice are said to have been allocated
to undisclosed Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) but are yet to be
evacuated due to logistics problems.
The Area Controller of the
command, Comptroller Boyiliya Binga told journalists that some of the
seized bags of smuggled rice which have been in the customs warehouse
for close to two years are no longer edible.
The items seized by
Comptroller Binga currently occupied the newly built apartment which are
either for conference or office accommodation of men of the service.
“”The
CAC wishes to appeal to states which were allocated items to IDPs from
the HQ to comeand evqcuate them. This will help create space in the
Government Warehouse for more seizures.”
According to the WMC
boss, the items which include vegetable oil, bags of shoes, used tyres,
among other items at the warehouse have been abandoned at the facility
for close to three years and the command is willing and eager to make
more seizures this years without any storage provision.
In one of
the recent seizures, the Comptroller declared that the command nabbed
806 loaves of cannabis with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N21,157,500 in
August, 2018.
Other items include; 219 kegs of vegetable oil
worth N2,628,000; 500 bales of cloth with DPV of N42,000,000; 42 sacks
of shoes with DPV of N6,413,400 among others.
He however stated that the total DPV of the items seized is N297.887,446.00.
Speaking
further on challenges of the command, Comptroller Binga said dearth of
operational equipments such as boats and vehicles had impacted
negatively on the efficiency of the command’s anti smuggling activities.
On
assumption of office at the command, the CAC has been able to furnished
three structures to make up for shortage of offices in the command as
well as repair of three sea going boats with the assistance of the
Comptroller General of Customs and his management team.
The
Comptroller however promised to improve on its present achievements
especially as the officers and men of the Service are being motivated
through promotions, welfare packages and supply of vehicles and tyres to
the command
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