According to a news report from Voice of Nigeria, the Nigeria Customs Service, Kwara State Command, North Central Nigeria, has disclosed that the command remitted over Ten Billion Naira into the federation account from January to May 2024.

During his maiden press conference held at the Area Command headquarters in Ilorin, Comptroller Faith Mathew Ojeifo, who assumed leadership of the Command in February this year, revealed that a comparative review of the preceding year 2023 shows the command surpassed its revenue by a 40.41% increment.

“From January-May, 2024 we collected and remitted a total sum of Ten Billion Twenty-Seven Million Five Hundred and Eighty Thousand Six Hundred and Ninety Four Naira Sixty Three Kobo (N10, 027, 580,694.63).

“A comparative review of the preceding year 2023 indicates that the command surpassed what was collected same period last year 2023 with Two Billion Eight Hundred and Eighty Five Million Seven Hundred Seventy Nine Thousand Six Hundred and Forty Four Naira Three Kobo (N2,885,779,644.03) which represents 40.41% increment.

“Within the period under review, I rejig my operation teams which had led to Twenty One (21) seizures of different prohibited items. These include: 507 Bags of foreign Rice, One Unit of used vehicles, 1,055 pieces of used tyres, 164 Jeri cans of PMS of 25 liters each (4,100 liters) The Total Duty Paid Value is N35, 416,140,000.”

Similarly, the Command donated some food items to the vulnerable people in the state through the state Commissioner for Social Development Abosede Buraimoh and accompanied by her counterpart in Women’s Affairs, Folashade Opeyemi.

“In a follow up to the Honorable Commissioner’s recent visit to Kwara Command, I am honored to stand before you today to present these relief materials on behalf of Comptroller General of Customs Bashir Adewale Adeniyi to the Kwara State Ministry of Social Development.

“We are aware that the ministry is not a revenue generating ministry and only benefits from monthly allocations from the Kwara State Government and that is why we are recognizing the tireless efforts of the ministry in serving the less privileged, the vulnerable and the disabled in the society.” The items donated include: cartons of Indomie noodles, spaghetti, sugar, toilet paper, Semolina, Cartons of tin and sachet milk.

According to the Customs boss, all the items are aimed at providing relief, comfort and support to the vulnerables.

On the empowerment of members of COWA, Ojeifo said: “We recognize that women are the pillars of our families, our communities, and our economies. They are the ones who nurture, educate, and inspire future generations. They take care of our children and home front while we are far away from home doing our jobs of protecting the nation’s border from offensive goods like arms and ammunition, drugs and other illicit goods. “

Thanking Customs on behalf of the state government, Abosede Buraimoh lauded the support and promised that the items would be judiciously shared to the needy.

The Command also gave out empowerment items to the Customs Officer’s wives Association, (COWA).

The Customs boss disclosed that after months of extensive training of registered wives and widows of Customs officers in different empowerment training programs such as baking, cosmetics, sewing, and other skill acquisition under his leadership, the Command empowered about Sixty Seven (67) wives and widows of Customs officers with Sewing machine, Baking oven and Make up kits.

“The aim of the empowerment is to keep you busy, self dependent and productive while we are far away from home which will no doubt reduce the burden of always waiting on your husbands,”the Controller added.