Customs Intercept Army Uniforms, Cocain, Ammunition At Tin Can Island Port

The Nigeria Customs Service, Tin Can Island Command has said that it intercepted 43.110kg of cocaine, military uniforms, arm and ammunitions as well as other assorted seizures between January to August, 2021.

The Area Controller, Tincan Island Command, Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Abdullahi Musa stated this on Thursday when he played host to the Assistant Comptroller General in charge of Zone A, ACG Modupe Aremu.

Musa said that as regards the command’s anti-smuggling, the drive had been re-jigged through intelligence sharing with other critical agencies like National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Standard Organisation of Nigeria and others.

“As part of our statutory mandate, the anti-smuggling activities during the period under reference yielded the following results: 65 containers of assorted consignments detained pending further investigation, 15 units of vehicles detained pending further investigation.

“Others are cartons of un-registered Pharmaceutical Products, Spare Part, used vehicles, used/new household Items were also seized.

“In addition, the command in conjunction with NDLEA also seized 43.110kg of cocaine/military uniform/used clothes, Cartons of expired Chloroquine Injections etc. with a Duty Paid Value of N93,829,829.

“Recently, the command discovered a pistol with its magazine concealed in a compartment of an imported vehicle among others,” he said.

Musa said that the command on Wednesday made a seizure of 1 x 40ft container with 150 arms and ammunition.

He said the command had also seized 600,000 bottles of Barcadine brand of codeine among others.

He disclosed that the command generated N320.96 billion from January to August, 2021 as against N248.89 billion generated during the same period last year.

The comptroller said that a comparative analysis of revenue collection for the two periods indicates a difference of N72.06 billion, representing an improvement of 28.63 percent.

As regards export, he said that the command’s January to August returns on Nigeria Export Proceed for commercial exports indicated a total of 1,497,897.1 Metric Tonnes of goods with a free on board value of N82.5 billion.

He said that the export was generally agricultural products and manufactured goods.

He noted that this was against 151.855.9 Metric Tonnes with a FOB Value of N78.46 billion exported in 2020.

Musa said that as a practical step, the command created and operated several platforms like Fast Track Facilities, the Dispute Resolution Committee (DRC) use of valid bank bond for taking delivery of consignment with contentious issues, the resuscitated Help Desk etc for expeditious Cargo delivery.

He said that the command had mapped its stakeholders into segments, with a view to engaging with each group in a way that works best for them.

“The regular engagements with stakeholders help us to foster connections, trust, confidence and buy-in for the command’s core statutory mandates,” he said.