Customs intercept N1.4bn worth items during border patrol

The Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hammed Ali (retd) on said on Monday that operatives of Joint Border Security had intercepted items worth N1.4bn in its ongoing operation.

The Customs chief disclosed this at a joint conference held with the head of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr. Mohammed Babandede, in Abuja.

According to him, the items seized since the commencement of the exercise were 21,071 of 50Kg of per boiled foreign rice; 190 vehicles; 891 drums filled with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), and 2,665 jerricans of vegetable oil.

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Other items were 133 motorcycles; 70 jerricans of PMS, and 131 bags of NPK fertilizer.

Ali also lamented that unscrupulous elements used such fertilizers for explosives to perpetrate mayhem in the country.

He said 95 percent of illicit drugs and weapons used for terrorism come through the porous borders.

He disclosed that 317 suspected smugglers and 146 illegal migrants have so far been arrested during the exercise, claiming that the partial border closure had also boosted the revenue generated by the service.

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