The Comptroller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Zone `C’ Compliance Team, Ahmed Azarema, announced in Benin on Wednesday that the team had impounded contraband worth N95 million. Azarema, who is the National Coordinator of the team, disclosed this at the public destruction of banned poultry products with a market value of N41.7 million in Benin. The Comptroller also said that the team handed over to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), some uncertified and banned pharmaceutical products valued at about N33.4 million.
He said that 800 bags of 50 kg imported parboiled rice, valued at N20.4 million, had also been impounded by the compliance team. A breakdown of the seizures and the public destruction included 2,480 cartons of frozen poultry products, 665 cartons of pharmaceutical products, which included 490 cartons of Tramadol and 165 cartons of Really Extra. The National Coordinator of the compliance team said that the NCS would not relent in its fight against the smuggling of contraband, in spite of the smugglers’ innovative tricks. Azarema said that the seizures were a pointer to the resilience and commitment of officers of the Federal Operations Unit in Benin. He advised members of the public to desist from buying banned poultry products, stressing that only such would discourage smugglers from continuing in the act.
Azarema, however, said that at the coming of the yuletide, a machinery had been put in place to ensure that banned poultry products did not find their way into the markets. He said the NCS officers had been fully trained and ready to combat whatever devices smugglers might adopt to perpetrate their crimes. The state NAFDAC coordinator, Mrs Esther Itua, who received the banned pharmaceutical products, commended the NCS for its efforts at ensuring that the country was rid of substandard and harmful products. The NCS Zone `C’ Command is comprised of 10 states: Edo, Delta, Imo, Cross River and Bayelsa. Others are: Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Anambra.
NAN
