The Adamawa/Taraba Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has made 19 seizures of assorted items with duty paid value of N13.7 million.
The Area Command headquarters in Yola said on Saturday that the seizures were made in the last month.
The NCS Area Comptroller, Salisu Abdullahi who disclosed this at a press conference, listed the seized items to include cartons of insecticides, bags of foreign rice and over 15,000 litres of petrol packed in drums and Jerry Cans.
“Our intelligence reports revealed that the smuggling of petroleum products into countries in the West African sub-region persists because Nigeria’s PMS is of high quality,” the Customs area controller said.
He expressed regret that the smuggling of petroleum products has afflicted economic losses on Nigerians and lawful stakeholders in the oil and gas industry and charged his officers and men to ensure that smuggling operations become more difficult for anyone.
“Because of the inflammable nature of the premium motor spirit, PMS, most of it has been disposed of in accordance with the law and the accrued proceeds remitted into the federation account,” he explained.
He added that the remaining PMS would be auctioned immediately after the press briefing.
Customs make 19 seizures worth N13.7m in Adamawa, Taraba in one month