The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has intercepted different items, including petrol and rice with a total Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N1.8 billion from January 23 to September 8, 2023.

The Customs Area Comptroller, Dera Nandi, made the disclosure in Seme on Friday, September 8.

Giving a breakdown, the Comptroller listed the recovered items to include 9,500 50kg of rice, equivalent to 16 trailer loads of foreign parboiled rice, with a Duty Paid Value of N312.2 million.

Nandi added: “Others are 13, 835 x 30 litres Jerrycans equivalent to 415, 050 liters or 13 petroleum tankers with DPV of N738,276,461.

“We also seized 15,389 of General Merchandise Goods.

“On hard drugs, we seized 41 parcels of Cannabis Sativa, 4,900 Tablets 225mg of Tramadol Tamol-X, 3,600 Tablets 225mg Tramadol Royal.”

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He said the command also seized 157 Tablets of Heineken Ecstacy and 864 packs of cigarettes.

Nandi stated: “In the same vein, Officers and Men of the command, acting on credible intelligence, intercepted 1,364 (30) litres Jerrycans of petrol, equivalent to 40,800 litres, over one Tanker Load.

“This is with a DPV of N24,663,355 in the early hours of September 8, along the Badagry creek.

“The duty paid value for items seized for the period January 23 to September 8 is N1,827,362,619.”

He added that the Customs officers also seized skin of donkeys in Seme on Friday.

Nandi stated that the revenue target for the Command for the year 2023 was N1,960,000,000 only.

The Comptroller said: “As of this morning of September 8, the command has collected N1,904,459, 390.77 only.

“This represents 97.2 per cent of N1,960,000,000 allotted target for the year 2023.”

He said in the period under review for the year 2022, the revenue was N885,543,098.11.

“The implication is that the Command’s revenue profile witnessed a tremendous increase of N1, 018,916, 292. 33 (51.98 per cent).

“This was a result of painstaking efforts made by the leadership of the command in partnership with our stakeholders to ensure compliance with our revenue generation agenda.

“In the area of anti-smuggling operation, you are already conversant with our past headline seizures of fake $6 million equivalent to N2.7 billion,” Nandi stated.

The Star