The Nigeria Custom Service (NCS), Adamawa/Taraba Area Command, has seized smuggled items worth N13,749 million at the Nigeria-Cameroon border in the last one month.
The Command also seized raw donkey skin in the area during the period.
Mr Salisu Abdullahi, the Area Comptroller, disclosed this to newsmen on Friday in Yola while destroying the raw donkey hide in accordance with Schedule 15 of NCS Act, 2023.
He said the contraband items seized within the period under review include 19 cartons of foreign insecticide, 26 bags of foreign parboiled rice, and 15,449 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) packed in 17 200 litre drums.
He said during the operation none of the smugglers could be arrested as they fled and abandoned the items.
“When overrun by our enforcement units, the smugglers always prefer to abandon their smuggled goods and flee in order to escape prosecution.
“I want to bring to the notice of the general public that the Command has vowed to clamp down on all smugglers,” he said, maintaining that Nigeria cannot afford to allow saboteurs take over the nation’s economy.
He urged patriotic Nigerians, stakeholders and all relevant security agencies at the Command’s frontiers to continue to collaborate with the Customs in the battle against the menace of smuggling.
The comptroller commended CGC Bashir Adewale for providing the Command with additional operational vehicles.
According to him, the vehicles had strengthened the efforts of the operatives in the area of combating the smuggling activities and is yielding great success in terms of the seizures recorded in the period under review.
He assured that the Command will not rest on its oars until the menace of smuggling is significantly suppressed.
