CAC, Federal Operation Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’, Owerri
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operation Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’ Owerri Command has recorded seizures worth of N591 Million.
The Area Comptroller of the Zone ‘C’ Mr. Kayode A. Olusemire made this known to newsmen while briefing journalists at the scene of the seized items in the Zone; where he said that the command has intercepted 22 cars, including eight bullet proof exotic cars and 1901 bags of foreign rice with the estimated cost of Duty Paid Value (DPV) put at N591 million. According to him, six suspects have been arrested in connection with the seized goods and they are helping them on their investigations and at the end of their interrogation, those who have cases to answer would be charged to court.
Mr. Olusemeri wondered why some Nigerians, who have the money to purchase these vehicles, could not provide money to pay the Duty Paid Value to the Federal Government.
He warned that the Nigerian Customs Service would not rest on its oars to ensure total eradication of this ugly trend of economic saboteur being performed by unpatriotic Nigerians.
While advising foreign rice importers to take advantage of loans being provided by the Federal Government for those cultivating rice in the country than importing foreign rice into the country, he also urged genuine importers to acquaint themselves with import customs advice and be adequately informed of what constitutes import prohibitions, noting that‘Ignorance has no place in law’.
Olumisere explained that management of customs is solely interested in trade facilitation, but equally constrained by law to intercept offensive importations and stop smugglers from ruining our economy and national growth. He said, “In the past four months, we have brought you here to showcase seizures made by our officers. We are here again but not so much to showcase seizures but to appeal to Nigerians to strive to do the right thing. Why is it that every time, we have people travel abroad to buy exotic cars, cars that are worth millions of naira, and they prefer not to pay duty on them? And we are also having other importations that have potential security risk. “Here we have bullet proof Land Cruiser, no document, smuggled into the country with DPV of N95million. This is another one here, Range Rover with DPV of N81million, these are vehicles that are controlled, they are supposed to obtain End-User-Certificate to make it possible to trace, so that they do not fall into evil hands. “This government has gone extra mile to encourage the production of local rice, farmers are been given loans, yet some people prefer to sabotage the economy by smuggling in imported rice, rice that may have stayed so long in the silos, rice that is certainly less nutritious than our local brands in Ebonyi, Kebbi and other states”, adding: “Importers should please get necessary information on cars they wish to buy from the Customs website. They can also visit any customs formation nationwide, where you can get any information on import from Customs Help Desks.”