Customs seizes 3,665 vehicles worth N13bn

By Newsdesk

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali (retd), has disclosed that 3,665 vehicles were seized between 2015 till date, with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) worth over N13 billion.

Ali, who gave a breakdown of the seizures, said in 2015, 1,917 vehicles were seized with DPV of N3.856 billion and 1,483 vehicls were seized in 2016 with DPV of valued N2.683 billion.

The Comptroller-General, in a mild breakdown of the vehicles seized, revealed that January to August this year, 265 were seized with DPV of N6.625 billion.

He disclosed number of vehicles impounded during his lecture titled “Problem of Smuggling and its attendant Consequence on  Nigeria’ s Economy and the Way Out” at the IBB Golf and Country Club, in Abuja.

The Customs boss said that the high value recorded in 2017 was because most of the vehicles were of high value which included 15 bullet proof vehicles.

Ali said out of the 18 vehicles seized within last month in Abuja over non duty payment, 13 were bullet proof vehicles of which 10 had no Customs papers.

He said that Nigeria imported about 70 per cent of its needs and that 45 per cent of all the imports were smuggled into the country through land borders.

“Lack of patriotism among the traders and complicity of Customs officers has added to the problem. Over 85 per cent traders are not trustworthy as they falsify documents except for about five per cent of them who can be trusted and often have their goods cleared within 48 hours,” Ali said.

He opined that the four arms containers intercepted this year were concealed with many cases of under declaration and diversion of imported goods.

On the challenges of Customs in fighting smuggling, he said the Service lost three officers this year, even as Ali stressed that the agency under him has being sanitised and now very few corrupt officers are left.