The Nigeria Customs Service, Seme Area Command, has handed over seized six million dollars (N2.76 billion) to the officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Seme, Lagos State.
The Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Dera Nnadi, disclosed this on Tuesday at a media briefing on the anti-smuggling and enforcement activities for the first quarter of 2023.
Nnadi said the fake dollars were seized on Jan.31.
He said the seizure and arrest of two suspects took place at Gbaji checkpoint along the Seme corridor.
According to him, some of the anti-smuggling achievements by the command in the first quarter include impounded 2, 242 bags of 50kg rice equivalent to four trailer loads of foreign per boiled with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N72, 700, 480.
“Others are 7,587 by 30 litres of petrol equivalent to 227,610 litres or seven tanker loads of petrol with DPV of N51, 075, 684 and 550 pieces of donkey skin with NIO, 689,504 DPV.
“Also seized are six Maltese International Passports with the picture of a particular lady but bearing different names, two Senegal International passports, three Togolese International Passports.
“We seized four Republic of Benin International Passports, one Republic of Niger International Passport and 10 International Driving License of various countries.
“These will be handed over to the Nigeria Immigration Service on the orders of the Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hammed Alli, rtd, and in line with the service desire to consolidate the synergy between NCS and partner agencies,” he said.
Nnadi said the command also seized I,160 pieces of dead rats, 1,102 pieces of dead tiny birds and 34 pieces of monkey skin and 14 parcels of cannabis sativa.
“These achievements so far, were not made on a platter of gold. It took the painstaking efforts of the officers who spend hours on patrol and surveillance to record the seizures.
“We wish to reiterate that we will not relent on this effort and for this reason the officers are being commended.
“The command will continue to dialogue, sensitise and educate the public on socioeconomic implication of smuggling as well as performing statutory function of enforcing compliance in line with government fiscal policies,” he said.
Earlier, the EFCC’s Zonal Commander Lagos, Michael Wetkas, said the fake dollars would be exposed to forensic investigation in the laboratory to authenticate whether they were either original or fake.
“We are always interested in where they are coming from and where they produced it.
“From their, we will start investigation to look for people behind it.
“If we are lucky, we will charge them to court of law,” he said.
Also speaking, the Controller of Immigration Service, Seme Border Command, Comptroller Douglas Audu, said that the handing over was a show of close synergy that existed between the security agencies working at the Seme Border.
On the international passports and Resident Cards, Audu said a detailed report would be written and forwarded to the Service Headquarters together with the documents for further necessary action. (NAN)
