The Kano-Jigawa Area Command of Nigeria Customs Service has impounded N700m worth of contraband goods from smugglers between January and December 2021.
The items were impounded from various operational fronts across the two states.
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The items included bags of 50kg foreign rice, bales of second hand cloths, cartons of spaghetti, bags of cream milk and donkey skin among other items.
The Zonal Comptroller of the command, Suleiman Pai Umar who led journalists through the seized items on Thursday, lamented the implication of smuggling in of foreign goods on Nigerian economy.
He said most of the items being smuggled into the country are not necessary as they are being produced locally.
He also warned against the use of second hand clothing and foreign rice base on health grounds. According to him “we do not know how long these items might have been in the stores in those countries, some of them might have expired and the secondhand clothing could cause skin diseases and many other infections especially during this era of COVID-19.
Some of the goods are not better than what we produce internally, let us patronize our local goods for our local industries to grow” he pleaded.
Speaking about revenues collected this year, the comptroller disclosed that over N25.4bn was collected between January and December, which sees a marginal increase from what was collected last year.
According to the Comptroller, “From January till date, we have collected the sum of N25, 364, 708, 926.25k as against N24, 438, 274, 946.09k that was collected in the year 2020. This shows an increase to what was collected last year.”
He also disclosed that 10 suspected smugglers have been arrested and have already been handed over to relevant security agencies for prosecution.
