By Chinonye Anyatonwu
The Zone A Command of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU) has made a very outstanding seizures. This was disclosed by the Customs Acting Area Controller of the FOU, Comptroller Hussein K Ejibuno at the FOU premises, Ikeja, Lagos.
Briefing the newsmen on the items seized, Compt. Ejibuno said that “A misplaced priority was demonstrated in the use of hard earned forex for the importation of expired seasonings (Chicken Cubes), used clothes, shoes and tyres and this is not only injurious to the economy, but also a despicable act by some desperate importers to make monetary gains at the detriment of other peoples’ health.
Some of the seized items on display.
The CAC also noted that “The federal government in her wisdom banned the importation of poultry products so as to support the growth of our domestic poultry farms, and to protect them from foreign competition”.
“Secondly, it was discovered that in the process of transporting these products, some hazardous chemicals are applied to help in preserving the products; since its
frozen state of being cannot be sustained till it reaches the final consumers. This
act calls for public concern as it could be a source of different ailments and
diseases”.
Comptroller Ejibuno added that no Nigerian family has not been affected by the importation of substandard or used tyres, skin diseases or cancer as a result of the patronage of substandard or fake products into the country.
He detailed the listed items which were recently seized as 7,261 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice (equivalent to 12 trucks load), 600 bags of basmati rice (5kg each), 34,725 liters of petroleum motor spirit (PMS), 39 bales of used clothes, 225 pieces of used tyres, 201 cartons of expired seasoning (Chicken Cubes), 331 cartons of frozen poultry, 6 units of used imported cars, 2,634 cartons of slippers/shoes, 900 pairs of used shoes, 42 units of used motorcycles, etc.
The CAC informed that “Nine (9) suspects were arrested in connection with some of the seizures.
The seizures had a cumulative duty paid value (DPV) of Hundred Five and ThirtySeven Million, Four Hundred and Seventy-Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Seven Naira, Five Kobo (N537,479,927.5).
Through meticulous checks on import documents, followed with the issuance of demand notices to importers/agents found to have short paid their duties; the sum of Twenty-four Million, Nine Hundred and Fifty-Seven Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty-One Naira, Seventy-One Kobo (N24,957,351.71) was collected as revenue.
This amount would have been lost to some non-compliant importers/agents if not for the watchfulness and the uncompromising disposition of officers of the Unit”.
He encourages genuine business people to continue to increase their rate of compliance as he thanked the general public for their cooperation.
