The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A said it intercepted imported used vehicles and tyres as well as cartons of expired batteries among other smuggled items with a duty paid value of N813 million in August 2023.

Displaying the items at the unit’s warehouse in Lagos, the acting Controller of the unit, Hussein Ejibunu, listed other seized items in the Southwest region of the country to include, 1 X 40 ft container FTC one used Toyota Corolla, 49 pieces of car rims, 552 pieces of used car tyres, 205 pieces of used truck tyres and 32 pieces of motorcycle tyres and another 368 pieces of used tyres.

Others are 394 cartons of codeine syrup, 6,911 x 50kg bags of Foreign Parboiled Rice equivalent to over 11 truck-loads, 292 bales of used clothes, 13,525 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), 345 kg of Indian Hemp and 486 cartons of frozen poultry products.

Ejibunu said a total of 91 seizures were recorded within the month under review with 12 suspects arrested in connection with some of the seizures.

He said smuggling of prohibited items such as used shoes, illicit drugs, used clothes and used tyres is giving serious health concerns.

The controller also alerted the public to the dangers posed by the importation of Indian Hemp (Cannabis Sativa) because of its effect on criminal-minded people and the youths.

Ejibunu noted that the importation of foreign parboiled rice and poultry products is an adversary to the economy of the local farmers.

“You may recall that foreign tomato paste, used clothing, foreign parboiled rice, importation of vehicles through the land borders, used tyres, arms and ammunition without end-user certificates among others, are items that fall under the import prohibition list; their importation threatens our fragile economy,” he stated.

Ejibunu, on revenue recovery, said the unit recorded N81.4 million through documentary checks and issuance of demand notices on consignments that were found to have been short-paid.

He lamented that some Nigerians would pay all duties and levies payable to the Customs authorities of other countries they import from, while they make conscious efforts to evade such payments into the Federal Government coffers.

He advised members of the public to be guided by the Import and Export Prohibition Lists for compliance.

Ejibunu also appreciated the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale, for the additional logistics supply of two trucks for the evacuation of seizures and a towing truck to ease their operations.