The Nigeria Customs Service , NCS, Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘C’, Owerri has recorded a total of 467 seizures of illegally imported items with an overall Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N2,709,807,358 billion in the year 2015.
The Customs Area Controller of the Unit, Comptroller Dimka, Victor David who gave details of the seizures recorded said that 316 suspects were arrested in connection with the smuggling, one convicted, and 23 cases pending in court for the same purpose of which 7 cases were won by the Unit.
He added that underpayment recovered for some items stood at N130,144,103.00 million.
In addition, Dimka said that 1,561 cartons of medicaments (fake drugs) along with 7,493 bales of second-hand clothing and 5,642 cartons of other contraband items were equally impounded by the unit during the year under review.
A comparative analysis of the above seizure report and duty recovered with same reports of year 2014 shows a geometric growth in result of suppressing smuggling within the zone.
The current seizure report with duty paid value are 29% and 50% in increase respectively when compared to seizure report of year 2014 that recorded 363 seizures with Duty Paid Value DPV of N1,805,843,064.00.
