…Receives House Committee on Customs
The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service Ikeja, Lagos has said that the it effected Six Hundred and Sixteen (616) seizures of offending/prohibited items valued at six hundred and fifteen million, six hundred and fifty eight thousand, four hundred and fifty naira (N615, 658,450.00) with a payable duty of one hundred and sixty four million, eight hundred and twenty nine thousand, three hundred and thirty five naira (N164, 829,335.00) between 1st January and 31st May, 2016.
According to a release signed by the Unit’s Public Relations Officer, Uche Ejesieme, the seized goods have a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of seven hundred and eighty million, four hundred and eighty-seven thousand, seven hundred and eighty five naira (N780, 487,785.00).
Ejesieme further disclosed that the Unit also apprehended sixty-nine (69) suspects saying that comparatively speaking, the report represented a positive increase when compared with the report of the corresponding period of 2015.
He informed that the Controller confirmed that over two hundred and ninety-seven million naira (N297, 000,000.00) was recovered through the various interventions during the same period.
The Unit’s spokesman observed that those achievements did not come under the platter of gold in view of the challenges the unit continued to face in the hands of miscreants masquerading as smugglers adding that every now and then operatives of the unit were confronted by those smugglers with their hostilities, aimed at frustrating the efforts of the operatives.
According to him, “Smuggling, just like scavenging, is a global menace and it is instructive to note that these smugglers are deadlier than armed robbers both in style and mode of operations. However, I am pleased to tell you that our operations have benefitted from the training and re-training policy of the Comptroller-General of Customs. This explains their tenacity of purpose and capacity/competence to withstand any threat.
“Our activities have been able to drastically decimate and degrade the activities of these smugglers particularly in the areas which were hitherto seen as ‘no go areas’. We not only seize from them but we also cut their supply chains and prosecute culprits so as to serve as deterrence to others”.
In another development, the Controller, Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ Ikeja, Comptroller Umar Mohammed Dahiru received the members of the House of Representatives Committee on Customs.
In his address of welcome, the Controller expressed appreciation with their visit and pointed out that such visit would naturally spur officers to greater efficiency for obvious reasons.
He informed the Committee that the Unit recently delivered over thirty thousand (30,000) bags of rice, nine thousand (9,000) cartons of vegetable oil and large quantity of second-hand clothings to Internally Displaced Persons camp (IDPs) in North East in line with the Presidential directive.
The members of the Committee were later conducted round the Government Warehouse of the Unit and other facilities including the portion that was recently gutted by fire.
The members of the House of Representatives Committee on Customs led by its Chairman, Hon. Ahmed Rafiu Chanchangi visited the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ Ikeja in continuation of their oversight visit to Customs Command in Lagos.
Hon. Chanchangi in his address, pointed out that the visit was for the Committee to have an ‘on the spot assessment’ of all projects under construction, revenue generation in 2016 as well as the challenges faced by the Service.
He stated that the visit was in line with Section 88 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and Order xviii (B) Rule 142(20) of the Standing Orders of the House of Representatives.
Send your news, press releases/articles to info@primetimereporters.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @reportersinfo and on Facebook at facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526.
