Marine Customs bemoans lack of space for N124.8m seized items

Temitope Adebayo

The Western Marine Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has said that due to massive seizure in the command, the warehouse has been filled without space for the newly intercepted items seized by officers and men of the command. The amphibian arm of the service is currently warehouse over 5,646 expired bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice worth N124, 776, 600 in the warehouse. The expired bags of rice are said to have been allocated to undisclosed Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) but are yet to be evacuated due to logistics problems. The Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Boyiliya Binga told journalists that some of the seized bags of smuggled rice which have been in the customs warehouse for close to three years are no longer edible. The items seized by Comptroller Binga currently occupied the newly built apartments which are either for a conference or office accommodation of men of the service. “The CAC wishes to appeal to states which were allocated items to IDPs from the HQ to command evacuate them. This will help create space in the Government Warehouse for more seizures.” According to the WMC boss, the items which include vegetable oil, bags of shoes, used tyres, among other items at the warehouse, have been abandoned at the facility for close to three years and the command is willing and eager to make more seizures this year without any storage provision. In one of the recent seizures, the Comptroller declared that the command nabbed 806 loaves of cannabis with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N21,157,500 in August 2018. Other items include; 219 kegs of vegetable oil worth N2,628,000; 500 bales of cloth with DPV of N42,000,000; 42 sacks of shoes with DPV of N6,413,400 among others. He, however, stated that the total DPV of the items seized is N297.887,446.00. Speaking further on challenges of the command, Comptroller Binga said the dearth of operational equipment such as boats and vehicles had impacted negatively on the efficiency of the command’s anti-smuggling activities. On the assumption of office at the command, the CAC has been able to furnish three structures to make up for the shortage of offices in the command as well as repair of three sea-going boats with the assistance of the Comptroller General of Customs and his management team. The Controller, however, promised to improve on its present achievements especially as the officers and men of the Service are being motivated through promotions, welfare packages and supply of vehicles and tyres to the command.