By Chinonye Anyatonwu
The Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT) Sector 2 South-West borders of Nigeria has intercepted 6,819 items with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N176.30 million, in February 2023.
The Controller, JBPT, Zone 2 ,Comptroller Nurudeen Hassan disclosed this during a press briefing on activities of the JBP Operations at Sème border axis.
He said that the JBPT comprised officers of Nigeria Police, Nigerian Army, Nigeria Immigration Service, Nigeria Customs, and the DSS, coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).
“it will interest you to know that despite the very impressive scorecard shared with you last week in Abeokuta, the activities of the JBP operations between Feb.1 and Feb.28, 2023, has further translated into several interventions and seizures of various smuggled goods, and means of carriages and conveyances to talking 6819 items with Duty Paid Value of #176,403,000 only”.
“Some of the seizures within the period under review had been deposited in various government warehouses within the Area of Responsibilities (AOR).
“They include 2.696 plastic kegs of 30 litres of petrol, 3,604 bags of 5Okg foreign parboiled rice with 20 means of conveyances.
“Other seized items include 497 parcels of Cannabis Sativa valued at about N27,335.000 only.
“This has since been handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA),” he said.
Hassan stated that since 2019 till date, border team had made overwhelming seizures of petroleum products.
The listed items are 1,485,000 litres of petrol, one tanker truck loaded with diesel, one tanker truck loaded with kerosene, 32,076 kegs of 30 litres of petrol each, 1,757 drums of 200 litres of petrol and 280,050 litres of petrol evacuated from various filling stations involved in anti – bunkering activities.
He said that all the seizures had been auctioned to members of the public at a cumulative amount of N600,175,814:12.
Hassan, however commended the highly remarkable feats of the dedicated, pragmatic and purposeful officers and Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA) for their selfless sacrifices and resounding gallantry.
“I hope that the gesture will further boost their adrenaline and equally propel other officers and team leaders in the JBT Operations to up their ante to meet up with the exigencies of this onerous assignment”.
According to him, the invaluable influence of symbiotic relationship between the security agencies to the success of these operations cannot be underestimated.
He however commended the Federal Government for the foresight in creating the JBT Operations also thanked the management of the Nigeria Customs Service led by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) for the logistical support and encouragement.
