By Our Correspondent
Lagos, May 1, ’25 (TNZ) The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adeniyi, says the Customs has intercepted contraband items worth over N921 million.
TheNewsZenith reports that this is as the service intensifies enforcement operations at major ports nationwide.
According to the CG, the items intercepted included expired food items, unregistered pharmaceutical products and controlled security equipment.
Briefing newsmen at Apapa Command in Lagos during the week, Adeniyi said NCS made the seizures between January and April.
“The seizures also involved 11 separate interdictions. The prohibited items include five 40-foot containers, two 20-foot containers and four seizures of loosely concealed contraband,” TheNewsZenith quotes Adeniyi as saying.
The CG also gave updates on the rollout of the Customs Unified Management Information System, known as B’Odogwu.
He described the pilot phase at PTML and Tin Can Island Port as crucial.
NCS boss explained that his earlier visits to the two places enabled him to gain first-hand insights about challenges from the new digital platform.
While the B’Odogwu rollout was ambitious and necessary, NCS is fully aware that initial implementation would have some hiccups, he noted.
“We are not pretending that when we roll out a project of that magnitude, there will be no hitches’.
“Nigeria Customs is approaching the situation with flexibility and innovation.
“We are holding stakeholder and bank engagements to address the hiccups in the system’s deployment.”
Adeniyi also explained measures to strengthen enforcement at the Apapa Command.
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This is in line with the national strategic economic development plan and executive orders on port operations.
According to him, the Command had scaled up surveillance across seaports, airports, and land borders.
This is in response to evolving tactics by transnational criminal networks attempting to breach the country’s import protocols.
However, he raised an alarm over the rising influx of unregistered pharmaceutical products, particularly sexual enhancement drugs, into the Nigerian market.
He warned that such items posed a threat to public health and safety.
Adeniyi said Customs will continue to seize unregistered drugs that lack mandatory certification from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Items seized included expired margarine products and restricted security gadgets like drones and telecommunication devices.
The items are without end-user certificates from the Office of the National Security Adviser.
Seizures included 89 cartons of unregistered pharmaceutical products in container CAAU6514500, 242 cartons in container TCNU6880130 and 1,001 cartons of hydra-sildenafil citrate tablets in container MRSU3041714.
The Service also found another 40-foot container, containing 1,400 packages of various unregistered drugs.
Yet another container had 805 packages falsely declared as cosmetic powder.
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The service also intercepted two 20ft containers, GCNU1367992 and GCNU1372704, containing expired margarine products.
Additionally, the Customs operatives recovered 60 units of warrior drones without valid end-user certificates from a container marked MSKU9329923, valued at N15.9 million.
Another 53 helicopter drones, evacuated from a container marked CFAX3, carried an estimated duty-paid value of N2.1 million.
NCS also confiscated ten professional FM transceiver walkie-talkies from ENL.
The Service also confiscated a 20 ft. container (SUDU1408819) containing 500 packages of active medicine tablets that lacked NAFDAC certification.
Also speaking at the event, Dr Olakunle Olaniran, NAFDAC’s Director of Ports Inspection, condemned the scale of pharmaceutical fraud exposed.
“These are completely falsified medicines. Nigerians must be wary of not engaging in self-medication.
“Always obtain your medicines from registered pharmacies,” Olaniran said.
The Director commended the NCS for its proactive efforts in safeguarding the country against illicit and harmful pharmaceuticals. (TNZ)
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