Customs: Security operatives intercepted N176m litres of petrol, bag of rice in February

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT), south-west zone, says it intercepted 6,819 items in February.

Nurudeen Hassan, controller, JBPT, Zone 2, spoke on the operation during a media briefing at Sème border on Thursday.

The patrol team comprises officers of the Nigeria police, Nigerian army, Nigeria Immigration Service, the customs, and the Department of State Service (DSS); coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

Hassan said the team made enormous “seizures”, especially petroleum products.

He also said items with a duty-paid value (DPV) of N176.30 million were intercepted in one month.

“It will interest you to know that in spite of the very impressive scorecard shared with you last week in Abeokuta, the activities of the JBP operations between February 1 and February 28, have further translated into several interventions and seizures of various smuggled goods,” Hassan said. 

“Some of the seizures within the period under review had been deposited in various government warehouses within the area of responsibilities (AOR).

“They include 2,096 plastic kegs of 30 litres of petrol; 3,604 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice with 20 means of conveyances.

“Other seized items include 497 parcels of cannabis sativa valued at about N27,335.000 only.

“This has since been handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).”

Hassan also said the border team had made overwhelming seizures of petroleum products since 2019 till date.

The south-west zone controller listed the items as 1,485,000 litres of petrol, one tanker truck loaded with diesel, and one tanker truck loaded with kerosene.

“Others are 32,076 kegs of 30 litres of petrol each; 1,757 drums of 200 litres of petrol; and 280,050 litres of petrol evacuated from various filling stations involved in anti-bunkering activities,” he added.

Hassan noted that all the seizures had been auctioned to members of the public at a cumulative amount of N600,175,814.12.

Commending the officials of the team for their selfless sacrifices and resounding gallantry, he said the invaluable influence of symbiotic relationships between the security agencies to the success of these operations could not be underestimated.

Hassan also commended the federal government for its foresight in creating the JBT operations and thanked the management of the Nigeria Customs Service for the logistical support and encouragement.