Contraband worth N318.2 million between October 13 and November 14 were seized, says the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘C’ (FOUC) of the Nigeria Customs Service, Owerri command.

The command’s comptroller, Ali Ibrahim, disclosed this ton Thursday. He said the command also arrested seven persons for smuggling during the period.

The seized items included an armoured Lexus LX570 jeep without an End User Certificate and eight other vehicles worth N158.7 million.

The items also included 294 bags of foreign parboiled rice worth N11.7 million and concealed under packs of RC mineral drinks.

Others were 304 used tyres worth N4.5 million, 657 bales of used clothing worth N131.4 million and 32,500 litres of diesel worth N11.7 million, which was concealed in 650 sacks.

Mr Ibrahim added that the items were intercepted on different routes, namely Umuikaa/Aba Road, Okada/Benin Road, Benin/Auchi Road and Enugu/Obollo Road.

He commended the comptroller-general of Customs, Hameed Ali, for his logistics support to the zone. The FOUC boss urged Nigerians to continue to support the organisation in its advocacy against smuggling.

“We recorded this sterling feat between October 14, when I took over as FOUC comptroller and November 13, largely due to the leadership style of the comptroller-general and the entire management team of the service,” explained Mr Ibrahim. “We pledge to continue to justify the incentives and logistics support to our command.”

(NAN)