Customs Impounds Four Containers of Wood worth N373.5m

The Controller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Strike Force, Team A, has announced that it intercepted four container loads of unprocessed woods valued at N373.5 million.

The Coordinator, CGC Strike Force Team A, Deputy Comptroller of Customs, Ahmadu Shuaibu, while showcasing the items at Ikorodu, said the team in a renewed vigour seized four containers loaded with unprocessed woods.

The unprocessed woods, he revealed, were about being shipped out of the country to Asia when the men of the strike force intercepted it.

The federal government had in 2019 outlawed the export of unprocessed woods and allied products to protect the nation’s forest.

Shuaibu said the team has shifted its attention to identifying dangerous cargos right inside the Seaports before they are cleared.

He said smugglers of the woods defied extant export prohibition list. According to him, criminally minded businessmen are riding on the determination of government to improve on the nation’s export trade, to indulge in the illegal shipment of woods to Asia.

He said the strike force team A would go after those behind the illegal exports and that the team would also cripple the finances of the sponsors.

According to him, “Among other seized items are 550 cartons of foot wears, 343 rolls of synthetic grass cover and 1,709 bags of 50kg of foreign parboiled rice with a cumulative Duty Paid Value of N664.6 million.

“Within the period January and June 2021, a total of 86 seizures were made and they were found to have contravene different sections of the Customs and exercise laws. The goods are worth the N1.65 billion in Duty Paid Value (DPV).”

Shuaibu added that, “Sequel to meticulous documentary checks, the ICT components of the team recovered the sum of N1.9 billion from Demand Notices (DN) raised within the period under review (January and June 2021).”

“Considering the socio economic, security and health effects on the national Economy, importers and exporters and traders are advised to be committed to the well-being of the nation’s economy by complying with the Federal government extant laws and policies aimed at reviving the moribund industries and to sustain the existing ones” he explained.