The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’, Owerri, Imo State, has made a seizure of 17 prohibited items and 21 underpayments recovered with a total sum of N194,656,855 in January.
In a press statement signed by the Public Relations officer of the unit, Assistant Superintendent of Customs Onuigbo Ifeoma Ojekwu and made available to Metro, the amount was said to be a combination of an overall Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N122,282,220 and a recovered underpayment of N72,374,635.
The Customs Area Comptroller in charge of the unit, Mohammed Uba Garba, who disclosed this, said that 18 suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures which took place along Owerri, Benin, Enugu and Calabar axes.
The Comptroller listed the seizures to include nine vehicles worth N35,900,920, 382 pieces of foreign smuggled used tyres valued at N6,288,000, 3,077 bags of 50-kilogramme foreign rice estimated at N80,093,300, among others.
Mohammed Uba explained that rice smuggling could depress the nation’s economy as it reduces government’s revenue, stifles domestic rice industries, in addition to distorting supply and consumption data usually applied by the government as references for sound policy planning
