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The Niger/Kwara/Kogi command of the Nigeria Customs Service has generated over N725 million in the third quarter of 2018. The amount is about N190 million more than the N534million made within the same period of 2017.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO), in charge of the Command, Mr. Benjamin Lomba, disclosed this on Thursday via a statement made available to journalists.
His words: “The Command also generated a total of Seven Hundred and Twenty-Five million, Five hundred and Five Thousand, Eighty-Eight naira, Seventy-Nine kobo (N725,505,088.79) in the third quarter of the year 2018. This when compared to a revenue figure of Five hundred and thirty-Four million, One hundred and Fifteen thousand, Twelve naira, Eighty kobo (N534,115,012.80) made within the same period in 2017 shows an increase of One hundred and Ninety-One million, three hundred and Ninety thousand, Seventy-Six naira (N191,390,076.00) in the revenue generated.”
Lomba also disclosed that massive and strategic seizures were made in the quarter under review.
He disclosed that a total of 15 seizures with the duty paid value of N102,270,072 from the month of July to September 2018 were made. He gave the breakdown of some of the strategic seizures of the third quarter of the year as follows: 189,000 pieces of ammunition with a duty paid value of N63,504,000; 1239 50kg bags of rice with duty paid value of N22,351,400 and 12 fairly used assorted vehicles with a duty paid value of N14,860,436.00.
According to the spokesman, other items such as vegetable oil, textile fabrics, footwear etc with duty paid value of N1,554,236 were also confisticated.
“The Command looks forward to unprecedented performance in this last quarter of the year by re-strategizing, applying various diversifications in intelligence gathering and utilization, application of diplomacy in anti-smuggling especially in volatile border areas etc.” he explained.
“This will enable the command to consistently build on both revenue and anti-smuggling feats”.