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Desmond Mgboh, Kano
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has intercepted a total of 678 packages of unfinished leather (Donkey skin) billed for export to China.
The Customs Area Comptroller, Kano/Jigawa Command, Alhaji Alhaji Ahmed Nasiru said that that the donkey skins, valued at N7 .1 million, were already packaged, labeled and ready for export before they were arrested.
He added that act was contrary to the provision of the export law in Nigeria , adding that the three suspects arrested in connection with the crime had been granted administrative bail pending their prosecution.
The Customs Area Comptroller, who addressed journalists in Kano during a press conference, also said that in the last one month, they had also arrested a total 19 units of vehicles, 450 foreign bags of rice and 4,113 Jerry cans of 25 liters of oil.
Other items seized by the command, according to him, included 132 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 16 bags of sugar as well as a total of 223 bags of compressed bags of Indian hemp which he observed would be handed over to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
He appealed to the traders in Kano State and surrounding markets to join the Federal government in the fight against smuggling , asking them to discourage the sales of foreign smuggled goods in their shops.
He told the traders that, “Kano does share boarder with any country, but Kano is where the market is. So, once you can get the support of Kano men and women , the entire smuggling chain would be reduced by 80 to 85 per cent”.
He noted that without their support, “the buyers have nowhere to buy and the smugglers have nowhere to take his goods to”.
He reminded the marketers that two of their sons – Aliko Dangote and Isyiaku Rabiu – are big-time manufacturers of many food items, adding that the illegal import and sales of these good in Nigeria is detrimental to the sales of goods manufactured in Nigeria.
