The Nigeria Custom Service (NCS), Adamawa/Taraba Area Command, has seized smuggled items worth N13,749 million and destroyed raw donkey skin seized at Nigeria-Cameroon border in the last one month.
Mr Salisu Abdullahi, the Area Comptroller, confirmed this to newsmen on Friday in Yola while destroying the raw donkey hide in accordance with Schedule 15 of NCS Act, 2023.
He listed the contraband items seized within the period under review as 19 cartoons of foreign insecticide, 26 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 15,449 liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) packed in 17 of 200 liter drums, 475 of 25 litre and six of 35 liter jerry cans, respectively.
He said during the operation none of the smugglers was arrested as they were overrun, fled and abandoned the items.
“When overrun by our enforcement units, the smugglers always prefer to abandon their smuggled goods and flee in order to escape prosecution.
“I want to bring to the notice of the general public that the Command has vowed to clamp down on all smugglers,” maintaining that Nigeria cannot afford to allow saboteurs take over the nation’s economy, he said.
He urged patriotic Nigerians, stakeholders and all relevant security agencies at the Command’s frontiers to continue to collaborate with the Customs in the battle against the menace of smuggling as the fight is not a one man business.
The comptroller commended CGC Bashir Adewale for providing the command with additional operational vehicles.
According to him, the vehicles had strengthened the efforts of the operatives in the area of combating the smuggling activities and is yielded great success in terms of the seizures recorded in the period under review.
He assured that the command will not rest on its oars until the menace of smuggling is significantly suppressed.
