The Ogun 1 Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has confirmed interception of three single-barrel long guns, four packets of 25 cartridges and 100 pieces of cartridges by its operatives.

The Command Area Controller, Comptroller Mohammed Shuaibu, said this on Tuesday while giving an account of the command’s stewardship for the first quarter of 2025, said the command also seized cannabis sativa of different sizes.

He said the command’s relentless anti-smuggling campaign has continued to improve its seizure profile, stressing that the command’s intensive and intelligence-based anti-smuggling operations resulted in 161 seizures.

According to Shuaibu, the seized contrabands included 150 Sacks of Indian-Indian hemp of various sizes and 10 cartons of Amoxicillin capsules.

7, 242 bags of foreign parboiled rice, four used vehicles, 20 bags of imported sugar, 20 bags of flour powder and 50 bags of POP cement.

Others are 22 vehicles (means of conveyance), 534 cannabis sativa of booklet sizes, 239 cannabis sativa of bread sizes, 2,926 cannabis sativa of coconut sizes, two sacks of cowries, 12 cartons of Ghana soap, 843 pieces of pneumatics used tyres and 535 kegs of PMS of 25 litres each.

Shuaibu noted that the seizures were made at various locations, such as Abeokuta, Ilaro and Ipokia/Idiroko, among others. “

He added that “the cumulative duty paid value (DPV) for all the above seizures amounted to Three Hundred and Fourteen MiFifty-Seven Seven Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixteen Naira (N 314, 057,716).”

“during the period under review, the Command collected a total sum of forty three million, four hundred and twelve thousand, seven hundred and ninety four Naira (N43, 412,794.00) from import duty and auction sales of petroleum products (PMS) intercepted during anti-smuggling operations”, he said.

“I will like to reiterate that the revenue activity of the command comprises importation and exportation of legitimate goods, goods under the ECOWAS Trade Liberalization Scheme (ETLS) and assessment of merchandise in baggage”.

“This amount surpasses what was generated same period last year, 2024, with seven million six hundred and six thousand two hundred and thirty two Naira (N7, 606,232.00).”

“The Command is committed to facilitating legitimate trade. We value the business community and their contribution to the economy of the nation. We assure them of our continuous support in all aspect of their trading activities. However, we urge them to avoid any form of illicit trade that could adversely affect the economy and tarnish their reputation”.

“Within the period under review, the command processed 329.6 metric tonnes of export consignments with Free on Board Value of two hundred and sixty six million, nine hundred and sixty six thousand six hundred and forty two Naira (N 266,966,642 from January to March 2025”.

While reiterating the Command’s commitment to its mandate of suppressing smuggling and other illicit activities that harm the great country’s economic growth, Shuaibu called for the cooperation of well-meaning and patriotic Nigerians in providing useful information against economic sabotage for the sake of the nation’s development.