The Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service on Tuesday in Lagos destroyed a total of 2,349 cartons of frozen poultry products with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N23.7 million.
The command in the last one week had made three seizures of frozen poultry products.
The beachcombers arm of the service said the latest items were intercepted on two separate operations by officers and men of the command.
Customs Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Boyilila Binga while addressing journalists shortly before the destruction of the commodities at the dump site called on smugglers to desist from the illicit business adding that the operatives will continue to record seizures if they fail to repent.
In his words, “We are here to witness another day of destruction of poultry products and we are always ready to do that if the smugglers refuse to stop.
“We want to say that if smugglers are not tired of losing their money, we are not tired of destroying it and they should look for better things to do than to smuggle in products that are illegal.
“It is better they use their money to do legitimate business, and if they don’t have any, we have enough land to farm to give them a legitimate business to do.
“This is the second time in a week that we are destroying these products, and today we have to combine two, and as you can see, the sight is not good at all and thus the need to do away with them quickly,” he said.
Binga who was accompanied by officers of sister government agencies urged smugglers to source for other means of livelihood adding that such items were not supposed to come into the country.
“We can imagine what this N23.7 million could have achieved if put to legitimate use, but some people have just decided to bury it alive and we have just done that for them.
“Smugglers should have a rethink and go into legitimate business because Nigerian Customs is ready for them anytime,” he said, adding that the secret of the interception was intelligence gathering.
He disclosed that the combined seized items were recorded on the 21st and 22nd of September, 2019 respectively.
He further informed that the poultry products were intercepted along the Badagry and Ibeche waterways axis.
While highlighting the items intercepted recently, he stated that a total of 2,096 cartons were intercepted on the 21st of September and 253 cartons the next day, totaling 2,349cartons.
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