Customs impounds N12m poultry products
The items, which are included in Federal Government’s imported prohibition list, were loaded in a massive cooling van for onward transfer to various markets for sale to consumers.
The FOU officials also arrested a suspect, Bayowa Malik, who was caught in the truck at the time the NCS officials intercepted the vehicle.
Speaking on the seizure on Monday, the Controller in charge of FOU, Isa Nuhu, described the operation carried out by the patrol team as spectacular, adding that the smugglers loaded some cartons fish in the cooling van to deceive NCS officials.
“I make bold to show to you the way and manner smugglers plan to contravene the laws of the land as you can see the seizure in question was intended to deceive my Officers by concealing the truck load of frozen poultry products with cartons of frozen fish.
The seizure was effected at about 1600hrs of Saturday August 17th, 2013 along Lagos-Ibadan expressway. They were actually acting on a tip-off and were on the trail of the consignment till it got to that point. This underscores the desperation of smugglers who are bent on circumventing Federal Government policy on trade,” he explained.
Nuhu pledged that the Unit would continue to live up to acceptable standards in terms of statutory responsibility of suppressing smuggling. “This is just a tip of an iceberg as we have plans to wreck more havoc on these smugglers,” he said.
- The Sun
