The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has confiscated a truck of the Dangote Group of companies conveying 150 bags of illegally imported rice.
The Adamawa/Taraba Zonal Command of the NCS which made the seizure, has moved the truck, with a Jigawa State registration number DUT 68 XA, with the 50kgs bags of rice in it to NCS zonal headquarters in Yola.
The Zonal Controller of the NCS, Kamardeen Olumoh, who addressed newsmen Friday on the seizure and other activities of the zone last year, said when his men intercepted the truck, its driver fled, but assured that his men would get him.
“The driver escaped, but we are sure that Dangote, being a responsible corporate entity, will identify and apprehend the driver and hand him over to us for prosecution,” Comptroller Kamardeen said.
He disclosed other seizures the command made in the course of 2018, totalling 61 in all, including a total of 1,740 bags of foreign rice, some used vehicles, secondhand clothes, and 21,270 litres of petroleum products at a duty paid value of N59,781,006.81.
He added that three people were being tried in connection with the smuggling offences.
Reviewing other activities of the Adamawa/Taraba Zonal Command of the Nigeria Customs Service throughout last year, Kamardeen said the command generated N168,294,227.83 from January to December, as against N168,113,181.28 generated in 2017.
He said however that the 2018 income fell short of a target of N197,301,635.98 set by the NCS headquarters. “That is a shortfall of N29,007,408.16, representing 14.7 percent,” he noted.
He explained that the shortfall was caused by a number of factors, including the state of insurgency which impacted negatively on economic activities in the states under the command, the sectarian situation in neighbouring Cameroon Republic, recurring communal clashes in both Adamawa and Taraba states, and flooding which washed away large portions of roads, farmlands and products, all of which are sources of income to the command.
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