Date: 2021-08-15

The Nigeria Custom service as revealed that the smuggling activities at the Sector 3 of the Joint border operations have been reduced by 85 percent in the second quarter of the year.

The coordinator Joint Border operations sector 3, comprising of four North central states of Kwara, Kogi, Niger and Benue, comptroller Olugboyega Peters, made this known while speaking with newsmen Wednesday in Ilorin the Kwara state capital.

He also revealed that in conjunction with the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and the Department of Petroleum Resources only 13 petrol tankers were granted approval to load petroleum products every week to border communities, to prevent excess product being smuggled out of the country.

Peters revealed that in the period under reviewed the sector made a total of eighty two seizures of different items, which includes 650 Sacks of 60 liters each of Diesel, 1,735 Bags of foreign parboiled Rice of 50Kg each, 1,415 Jerry cans of 25 liters of Petrol, 33 used Vehicles, 10 Motorcycles among others, with the total duty paid value of N92, 547 ,752. 00.

He stated that the Sector will continue to be at the forefront of anti- smuggling activities and will not relent on its oars to make the smuggling activities unattractive.

According to him,"Security has been tightened; smuggling has become harder which hurts the smuggling networks. It might interest you to know that, from the record made available by NNPC/DPR only 13 petrol tankers were granted approval to load petroleum product every week to border communities, to prevent excess product being smuggled out.Such actions put in place include but not limited to-:No petrol station is allowed to operate in the night. Any major supply through approved routes is monitored through strengthening of check points manned by our officers. Enforcement is mapped out and thoroughly monitored by team of officers comprising of Customs, ONSA, NIA, Police, DSS, Immigration and other sister agencies involved in this assignment; All petrol stations are on roster to lift fuel accordingly which makes it absolutely difficult to smuggle out. Approved tankers laden with petroleum product must be escorted by a team of officers (only on roster) to the point of discharge. For example- Any tanker either from Ilorin or Oyo en route to border station or area of our responsibility (AoR) will be monitored by a team of officers positioned at Okuta and hand it over to officers at Ilesha Baruba, while officers at Ilesha Baruba will guard it to Chikada or any approved point of discharge. No petrol tanker is allowed into our Area of Responsibility (AoR) after 1600hrs to avoid late discharge and unwarranted suspicion;No officer on roster/escort of a petroleum tanker must leave the discharging point until after the last drop is discharged into the underground tank. Any tanker that cannot get to the point of discharge before 1600hrs must sleep over at the nearest check point and proceed to its destination the next day;A detailed inventory of each petroleum product is always taken for example- Number plate, Driver's Name, point of destination and couple with other relevant documents;Crackdown against illegal petroleum outlet such as fuel Station found guilty or violating the above Rules of Engagement (RoE) therein will be sanctioned. However, above are deliberate efforts and stringent measures put in place to avoid petroleum products been smuggled out of the country. I want to make this clarification that escort officers of the approved petroleum tankers loaded with petrol to the point of discharge should not be mistaken for smuggling out of the country but as part of strategies to avoid same product been smuggled out or diverted. I urged the media and the general public to inform the Sector, should there be any anomalies."