Officials of the Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, have seized outlawed products with Duty Paid Value of N10 billion in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The Unit gave the indication in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Peter Duniya, made available to journalists.
According to the statement, the acting Customs Area Controller, Usman Yahaya, said the seizure was made along Ido-Eruwa Road during one operation.
The statement read in parts, “The economic saboteurs met their waterloo when our operatives, acting based on credible information, made a single seizure at Ido-Eruwa Road in Ibadan, Oyo State.
“The contraband include 34 different brands of new and used vehicles laden with banned items such as second-hand clothes, foreign parboiled rice and Indian hemp.”
It added that although there was stiff resistance from the smugglers, the officials displayed a high level of professionalism and restraint to secure the contraband to the Customs warehouse in Lagos.
“Our operatives were met with stiff resistance from a combination of smugglers, hoodlums and villagers.
However, with the application of a high level of professionalism, the patrol teams were able to bring all the vehicles down to Lagos without any causality.
“While we appreciate the support and the cooperation of patriotic members of the public in carrying out our mandate by providing timely and useful information, however, recalcitrant economic saboteurs should note that they would continue to count their losses because we are better mobilised, organised and backed by the extant laws to be always ahead of them,” it read.
