NCS Impounds 1,182 Cartons Of Analgin, 1,343 Bags Of Foreign Rice

OGBONNA IWUAGWU

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone C Owerri, said that it impounded 1,182 cartons of analgin injections illegally imported from China but which were concealed in a container in a truck recently.

Also impounded by the Federal Government Revenue Generating agency were 1,343 50kg bags of foreign rice, 521 bales of second hand clothing and cartons of furniture all stealthily concealed in trunks load of containers.

Comptroller Olusemire Kayode in charge of the unit Zone C, who exposed the seized items while briefing newsmen in Owerri, put the overall Duty  Paid Value (DPV) of the items seized at N492 million, stating that the smuggled bags of foreign rice, some of which had become harmful for human consumption  bore a DPV of N33, 812, 600.

This he said, was in addition to 521 bales of used clothings and furniture fraudulently brought in as pumps and valves which were all impounded by his men at various locations within his area of jurisdiction.

He said that 6 suspects arrested in connection with the seizures had been granted administrative bail and would soon be charged to court.

Olusemire expressed concern that Analgin injection, said to be deadlier than tramadol and which had been banned by some of the more advanced nations of the world including Switzerland and America, is still being imported by some Nigerians into the country in their quest to make quick money.

According to him, each of the cartons of the controlled drugs (analgin) contained 18 packets with 100 ampoules each, but were cleverly concealed with generator set and the truck of conveyance intercepted while coming from Port Harcourt to Owerri.

Dismissing smuggling of prohibited goods as an act of a sabotage to the nation’s economy and which stifles the growth of local industries Olusemire advised Nigerians to learn to produce and to consume  locally produced goods, stressing that border closure was an inevitable option by the  government to protect and to safe guard the nation’s economy and to protect local industries.

“We should learn to eat what we produce and do away with importation. We have large acres of land and with technology; we can produce all that we need.

Smugglers are coming from so many ways and with new ideas of smuggling daily but we have our tentacles and strategies to checkmate their nefarious operations wherever they are”.

He advised Nigerians to always assist NCS with useful information to checkmate smugglers, their agents and collaborators.