Gbenro Adesina
The Oyo/Osun Area Command Controller, Nigerian Custom Service (NCS), AR Abdulkadir revealed today that the command has made a revenue collection of N15, 871,894,311.83b between May 1 and July 6, 2021, thereby bringing the cumulative revenue collected for the 2021 fiscal year, as at July 6, 2021 to N36,658,156,560b.
Abdulkadir, who revealed this at a press briefing added, “It is worthy of note that the Oyo/Osun Area Command made history by collecting an excise duty of N10,658,695,609.41in the month of June; which is the highest collected in a month in the history of the Command”.
The Area Commander noted that the command had equally made a tremendous achievement in the area of anti-smuggling drive.
According to him, “On the anti-smuggling drive, the Command made 50 seizures and 8 detentions, resulting in a Duty Paid Value of N66, 976,000… Within this period, the Command also made a seizure of 525 kegs of 25ltrs each and 2 drums of 100 ltrs each of Premium Motor Spirit (otherwise known as Petrol). Upon approval from the Headquarters, they would be auctioned and proceeds would be remitted accordingly and accounted for”.
“The Command also made a detention of 1 (One) unit of 2017 Honda Accord sedan car along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway pending presentation of necessary Customs document. There were 2 (Two) suspects arrested during this period. However, they have been granted bail pending determination of their cases”, he added.
He, however, appealed to the companies engaging in mining operations of precious stones and other national mineral assets within Nigeria, to register their operations with the Nigeria Customs Service to avoid embarrassment and sanctions in accordance with relevant sections of the Customs and Excise Management Act (CEMA) Cap C45 LFN 2004.
It would be recalled that between April and May, 2021, in the night, the Command carried out raiding exercises at Bodija and Oja’ba Markets in Ibadan, capital of Oyo State, where goods worth millions of naira were carted away.
These raids were condemned by the general public and National Assembly, liking the raids to armed robbery attacks.
