Border closure: Customs seizes N7.4bn contrabands

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has seized contraband items worth N7.4bn since the closure of the country’s land borders in August last year.

The NCS Spokesman, Joseph Attah disclosed on Monday in Ilorin that some of the items seized include 86,602 50kg bags of parboiled foreign rice; 1,172 vehicles; 2,997 drums filled with petrol; 16,771 jerry cans of vegetable oil; 66,000 litres tankers of vegetable oil; 15,089 jerry cans of petrol and 695 bags of NPK fertilizer.

He stated that the customs service has been generating between N4bn and N5bn daily, but since the border closure it generates between N5bn and N6bn daily to the country’s coffers.

While addressing journalists in Ilorin on Monday, he said the exercise has also recorded a number of seizures, as well as arrest of 697 illegal immigrants.

He said “It is important to note that 90 percent illicit drugs and weapons that are being used for acts of terrorism and kidnapping in Nigeria today came through our porous land borders. This implies that the arms and ammunition these terrorists and criminal elements were using no longer gain entry into the country courtesy of the border closure.”

He said even though the current Federal Government partial border closure has been given varying interpretations differently by different people, “Our series of interactions and engagements with Rice Millers Association of Nigeria since the commencement of this exercise has shown that the border closure has impacted positively as rice farmers and manufacturers are smiling to the banks.”