The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Murtala Muhammed Area Command (MMAC), announced it has seized drones, military wares, packages of tramadol and other contraband products worth almost N700 million at the command.
The Customs Area Controller (CAC), MMA Command, Comptroller Sambo Dangaladima, disclosed this on Tuesday, March 29, 2022.
Dangaladima gave the breakdown of the impounded contrabands as 679 sets of drones and 638 packages of various military wares, 108 packages of tramadol (225mg), containing 4,492,650 tablets, 78 packages of dry khat and 315 packages of various non-compliant pharmaceutical products.
According to him, the seized items were handed over to the representatives of the Nigerian Army, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The breakdown of the values of the seized items indicated that the drones and various military wares worth N379,203,818.00; tramadol, khat worth a combined N3,200,075,000 and non-compliant pharmaceutical products were about N310,240,458, totaling N692,644,351.
Dangaladima emphasised that the transfer was in accordance with the extant laws that govern agencies and their responsibilities and interdepartmental cooperation.
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He explained further that the drones and other military wares/uniforms were seized because they were the exclusives of the military to import such items, while the tramadol tablets were seized because they were above the permitted threshold by law in Nigeria.
The CAC added that the dry khat was totally prohibited in the country, while the non-compliant pharmaceutical products were impounded because they were suspected to be fake drugs without NAFDAC registration/approval certificates.
He said: “These items were imported with various AWBs at different dates/period from different ports of origin, en route different ports to Lagos as final destination. We have on record 34 AWBS of tramadol that are from India as port of origin, 17 of them came into Lagos en route Addis-Ababa.
“One came in en route Hong Kong while the rest came from Addis-Ababa to Lagos as final destination. The non-compliant pharmaceuticals are from Pakistan but came into Lagos en route Dubai and Addis-Ababa.”
Besides, the command, he said also made a total of N16,850,376,224.1 as revenue from January to March 29, 2022, as against N12,603,336,480.07 in the same period in 2021, which indicates a N4,247,039,743.5 increase.
Dangaladima revealed that from March 1 to 29, 2022, the command raked in the sum of N6,690,005,148.78, and expressed the confidence that the command would reach the N7 billion mark by March 31, as against N5.01 billion in the same period in 2021.
The CAC appreciated the dutifulness of officers and men of the command, stakeholders and the seamless cooperation of other security agencies in MMAC.
“The officers and men of MMAC are duty bound to ensure that the set objectives of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd) is achieved. In line with this, they worked assiduously round the clock and in synergy, to come about this proliferation of seizures in this command.
“We at M.M Airport Cargo place the security of this nation and good health of the citizenry as a topmost priority, even as we discharge our statutory responsibilities as Customs officers.
“We are poised to bring about a safer, saner Nigeria and more revenue for the service in total compliance to the directives of the Comptroller-General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), for the achievement of the focal objectives of his administration,” he added.
