Date: 2021-06-03

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT), Kwara Command has intercepted 637 bags of foreign parboiled rice and other contraband items with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N28,293,700m in the state.

The Coordinator of Sector 3 of the JBPT in charge of the North Central Zone, Comptroller Olugboyega Peters revealed this during a press conference in Ilorin on Wednesday.

Police rescue kidnapped man in Adamawa USAID donates books to pupils in Gombe According to him, the sector has made appreciable progress in its anti-smuggling activities within the period under review from April to May.

Peters listed the confiscated items made in 35 seizures to include 637 bags of 50kg of foreign parboiled rice, 795 kegs of 25 litres of Premium Motor Spirit, 15 units of Nigerian used vehicles (means of conveyance), 14 cartons of condensed milk, four cartons of batteries, 14 tin tomato paste and three bags of sugar.

He reiterated that despite the series of attacks by dare devil smugglers and hoodlums on officers on duty, the Sector will not be distracted from executing its mandate.

"Anyone caught disrupting our officers in the line of duty or perpetuating nefarious activities of smuggling shall be made to face the wrath of the law," he said.

He thanked other security agencies, community and youth leaders who are collaborating with the team in the fight against smuggling and human trafficking.

The sector, he noted, would continue to dialogue, engage, sensitize and educate the public, especially the people along the border axis on the socio-economic implication of smuggling as well as performance of its statutory function of enforcing partial border closure in line with Federal Government fiscal policies.