Follow Us on Google
The Western Marine Command (WMC) of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has destroyed 2, 343 unwholesome cartons of smuggled frozen turkey and chicken products siezed within two days along waterways in Lagos.
While addressing newsmen, the Customs Area Controller of WMC, Comptroller Boyiliya N. Binga said the poultry products were siezed from two waterways, which are Ibese and Badagry waterways, saying that Customs is ready and will continue to sieze and destroy any unwholesome products bringing into the country by the smugglers.
He explained: “We have about 20, 96 cartons, which was gotten on September 21, 2019, and another 253 cartons gotten on September 24, 2019. Altogether, we have 2, 349 cartons within the space of two days, which we just buried today. And we are ready to do that if the smugglers are not ready to stop. The Duty Paid Value (DPV) is about N23.7 million and the value is about N17.6 million. You can imagine what that money will be if we put it into legitimate business. But somebody has just decided to buried it alive and we are just done that.
“This is the second term in a week that we are destroying these unwholesome products. We have to combine two today and destroyed it. And you can see how bad the odour is. The odour is not good for anybody and that is why we have to destroyed them immediately.”
He lamented that one could have imagine what the N23 million would have done to impact people’s life by creating jobs if such huge amount of money has been channelled towards legitimate business.
He added: “We are always ready and we will always be ready. What we want to say is that if the smugglers are not tired of losing their money, we are not tired of destroying the unwholesome products bringing into the country with their money.
They should look for better things to do with their money instead of smuggling in products that are prohibited. It is better for them to do a legitimate business with their money. In case, they don’t have any business to do with their money, there are enough lands in the country for them to do farming if they don’t have legitimate business to do.”
