In a successful two-month crackdown, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone C, seized contraband goods valued at N510.92 million.
The operation took place between July 15 and September 15, 2024, in the South-South and Southeast regions of Nigeria. This was disclosed in a statement by Jerry Attah, the Public Relations Officer for NCS Zone C, and was shared with the media on Wednesday.
Zone C covers six states in the South-South geopolitical zone and five states in the Southeast. According to the statement, the Comptroller of the NCS Zone C, Michael Ugbagu, provided the statistics during a showcase of the seized items at the Government Warehouse in Edo State. The contraband items included illegal drugs, second-hand clothes, foreign food items, and other unregistered goods.
In addition to the contraband seized, the customs unit also recovered N25.57 million from demand notices issued to individuals and companies that committed infractions. The total amount generated during the period, including both the seized goods and the recovery from demand notices, stood at N536.49 million.
“The DPV was derived from our seized goods, which include 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without a NAFDAC number,” Ugbagu stated, stressing the harmful nature of these items.
Other seized goods included 1,015 sacks of dried donkey meat and skin, 75 bales of second-hand clothing, 463 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 269 pieces of used tires, and 56 cartons of smuggled tomato paste. Many of these items were intercepted on the Ewu-Okada/Benin expressway, thanks to credible intelligence.
Ugbagu expressed concern over the large number of tramadol sachets and cough syrups with codeine, emphasizing the risk these unregulated drugs posed to the youth if they had reached the public.
“More worrisome is the interception of 49,699 sachets of various brands of tramadol and 3,350 bottles of various cough syrups with codeine without NAFDAC registration numbers,” he said.
