Customs Intercepts N47.2bn Contraband At Lagos Airport

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Murtala Muhammad Airport (MMA) Command has made seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N47.21 billion in the last one year from various forms of infractions.

The service noted that a total of 10 seizures, which include tramadol, military camouflage jackets, military hard wares, counterfeit medicaments, dried shark fins and dried donkey genitals were impounded from smugglers in the airport.

The Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Muhammad Yusuf explained on Wednesday in Lagos that infractions ranged from false declarations, non compliancy with the estimated threshold and failure to comply with other extant regulations as enshrined in the Nigeria Customs Service Act (NCS ACT), saying that most of the relevant items had been handed over to concerned sister agencies in the spirit of inter agency collaboration.

Yusuf stressed that the command had maintained an open-door policy and resolved a lot of issues of common interest with concerned stakeholders.

Also, he said that the service generated N90.43 billion in the year 2023 from customs duty and other charges, noting that the command had been given N144 billion as target for 2024.

Yusuf noted that in comparison to the revenue collected same period in 2022, this stood at N69.77 billion.

He said: “This clearly shows a progressive difference of N20.66 billion, depicting 29.61 per cent increase of collection. The difference recorded was made possible as a result of resilience of officers in ensuring that agents were made to do proper declarations and made to adhere strictly to import/export guidelines in tandem with extant laws.”

Yusuf explained that to achieve the 2024 target, the Comptroller General of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi had encouraged their officers and urged them to sit up and block all leakages and this could be done with technology.

The comptroller added that during the period under review, January 2023 to December 2023, for anti-smuggling, officers and men of the command had not rested on their oars in enforcing government fiscal policies and other trade guidelines.

He appreciated the commands critical stakeholders, sister agencies and the media for their collaborative efforts and synergy while carrying out their statutory mandate in the state.

Yusuf noted: “I want to appreciate the CGC and his management team for opportunity to perform and urge officers and men of the command to remain focus and steadfast in discharging their assigned responsibilities.”