The Nigerian Customs Service has seized 11,650 litres of petroleum motor spirits popularly called PMS as part of its continued efforts to get rid of illegal smuggling of goods across the country.
The Comptroller of the command, Iheanacho Ernest Ojike, told newsmen on Thursday in Brinin Kebbi that the command also recovered 40 cartons of foreign Spaghetti, 50 bales of secondhand clothing, 28 cartons of Diclofenac tablets of 50mg and 10 Jerry Cans of vegetable oils with total Duty Paid Value (DPV) of fourteen million, seven hundred and ninety-two thousand, four hundred naira.
He stated that the seized PMS would be auctioned to the public with the expectation of generating eight million, one hundred and seventy-eight thousand, one hundred eighty-three (N8, 178, 183) and would be paid to the coffers of the Federal Government.
He explained that the team was able to generate twenty-five million, eight hundred and forty-seven thousand, six hundred and eleven naira (N25, 847, 611) in June, which is a 67.6 per cent increase as compared to the previous month of May.
Meanwhile, the Comptroller of the National Coordinator Operation WHIRLWIND, Hussien Ejibunu, in a separate briefing in Birnin Kebbi, said a giant stride was made by operatives of Operation Whirlwind Zone D’ axis with the seizures of PMS products in Sokoto Area Command.
He said the operatives displayed another huge seizure to the general public and that the operation has already disrupted and dismantled the network of cartels/smugglers of Premium Motor Spirit nationwide as the operation is taking place simultaneously across national borders.
He re-emphasised that it is a continuous operation until they stamp out the perpetrators of the smuggling and diversion of petroleum products across the country.
According to him, “This operation is coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser with petroleum regulatory authority NMDPRA and other law enforcement agencies.”
He stated that they had another seizure of six hundred and sixty-one, 661, Kegs of PMS, with some containing thirty and forty litres of products each, also another fifteen drums of PMS, with each drum containing two hundred litres each, which translates into seventy-nine thousand five hundred litres of PMS with a DPV of fifty-five million seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand five hundred naira only. The interception was made across Kebbi and Sokoto States, respectively.
He explained that one filling station was also sealed off and handed over to the regulatory agency NMDPRA for further investigation.
He said the operatives are in daily contact with their Control Room in Abuja which is being manned by NCS officers and NMDPRA staff, where daily truck out to every location in the country is monitored to ensure compliance with the regulatory authority’s rules on trucking, discharging and even dispensing of the product, so that issues of diversion are equally tackled by the operatives.
He urged members of the cartels to re-think and go into legitimate businesses, saying the Nigerian Customs Service will go after them as economic saboteurs, as there is no place for their illegal activities.