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24 Dangote Trucks Under Arrest In Our Warehouse-Customs
Fred Omotara, Lagos
The Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday said that about 24 Dangote Trucks have so far being arrested for smuggling activities in Ogun border towns.
Addressing newsmen on Tuesday in Lagos, acting Controller of FOU, Zone A, Hussein Ejibunu explained that the latest Dangote truck arrested around Ibeshe axis was carrying 600 bags of 50kg imported rice.
According to Hussein Ejibunu, “In total, we have arrested about 24 Dangote Trucks, and they are all in our warehouse.
“The one you are looking at here today was arrested in the dead of the night around Ibeshe. When my officers stopped the truck, the driver jumped out and ran away.
“On inspection, 600 bags of imported 50kg rice were inside the truck. There was no single bag of cement inside the truck.
“It shows the extent that smugglers can go to just to bring in this banned goods into our country.
“Other seizures made within the month of August 2022, were gotten from Idi-Roko, Oyo Axis, Seme Road, Ijebu-Ode Road and the Ports Corridors.
“10 suspects were arrested in connection with some of the seized goods, and are at various stages of investigation and prosecution, as we remain resolute to make them face the full wrath of the law.
Among other seized goods are:
“1 x 40ft containing flavour seasoning, falsely declared as auto spare parts.
“1 x 40ft containing auto interior accessories, falsely declared as filters/pneumatic transmission
“1 X 40ft containing vegetable oil and foreign parboiled rice, falsely declared as used vehicles.
“1 x 20ft containing 21 pallets of tiles, falsely declared as PVC floor tiles/floor bricks.
“1 x 20ft containing Padi Bitters, falsely declared as olive nuts.
“1 x 20ft containing unprocessed wood, falsely declared as aluminum ingots.
“1 x 20ft containing bales of used clothes and shoes, with a used fake seal/Dangote Truck.
“20 drums of Carbide without an End User Certificate.
“5,593 (50kg) bags of foreign parboiled rice; equivalent to 9 trailers truck load.
“56,725 litres of premium motor spirit
375 bales of used clothes.
“242 parcels of Indian Hemp and 41 pieces of military camouflage bags.
“Aggregate duty paid value (DPV) of the seized goods is N579,412,549.
“In our efforts to prevent loss of government revenue to duty underpayments, undervaluation of imported items and wrong harmonized system (HS) code classification, we recovered a total of N46,298,422.50.”