Another milestone: Customs at Area II Command Onne Rakes in N78.2bn

*Facilitates N52.6bn exports

(By Udeme Clement):

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Area ll Command Onne Port, Rivers State, has recorded a total of N78,167,080,299.21 (approximately N78.2billion), as revenue generated from January to June 2021, economic year.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO), of the Command, Ifeoma Onuigbo Ojekwu, made this known through official press statement.

She said; “The amount recorded is N31.5 billion above N46,661,656,918.3 ( approximately N46.7billion), collected from January to June 2020. This also signifies 67.52 percent increase of the Command’s revenue.

“Revenue generation, strict enforcement of fiscal policies, uncompromising implementation of government directives and diligent trade facilitation are among strategies put in place by Comptroller Auwal Mohammed, the Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the Command.”

She informed; “Aside from improvement in comparative mid-year revenue generation between 2020 and 2021, the Command also made some other laudable feats in export and anti-smuggling activities.

“In the month of June 2021, the Command generated the sum of N14,552,562,033.70 ( approximately N14.6 billion), which is an unprecedented feat in our history, as area Command.”

EXPORT
She pointed out: “Export statistics of the Command shows that goods worth N52.6 billion have been exported through Onne port from January to June, 2021. These exports include sesame seeds, ginger, cocoa beans, hibiscus, fluorite ore, lead ore, palm kernel shell, cotton, float glass, aluminium ingot etc, worth NESS value of N260,150,300.13. The total tonnage of the said exports stood at 331.356.39 tonnes with FOB value of $137,943,276.32”.

ENFORCEMENT (ANTI-SMUGGLING ACTIVITIES)
The PRO stressed: “The Command made 19 seizures totalling N8,299,061,138.00 (approximately N8.3 billion), in
Duty Paid Value (DPV) within the period under review.

“Most spectacular among them was over N3.7 billion worth of 1,387 cartons of tramadol in a single seizure, with 1000 cartons of tiles used to conceal the Tramadol made in May, 2021.
Other seizures include: two units of Used Mitsubishi buses; 210 bales of second hand clothing; 4,029 pcs of used tyres ; 16 units of Used engine gear box and auto spare parts ;310 pallets of laser ketchup; 2,721 bags of 50kg foreign rice; 37 cartons of wine; 124 cartons of tapentadol; 956 Jerrycans of 25litres of vegetable oil; 750 cartons of supergold candle; 2,970 cartons of foreign soap; 89 bales of fabrics and 500 cartons of medicaments.

“So far, four suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures and are at various stages of investigation and prosecution in Courts of competent jurisdiction.”

More so, the Area Controller emphasised that at various meetings with the Command management team and parade involving all officers that the Command will remain unrelenting and uncompromising in diligently examining every cargo that goes through the port.

This is in line with the Comptroller General of Customs zero tolerance for infractions.
Comptroller Mohammed said during a recent meeting that: “Area ll Command, Onne Port will remain a-no-go area for perpetrators of any trade malpractice. We will keep doing our best in ensuring that all import and export cargoes are duly examined.

“The long arms of the law will not spare any importer, exporter or trader who dares our resolve by perpetrating illegalities in Onne Port
We have demonstrated this in the first half of this year and will continue to improve on our recorded milestones.

“I am calling on all importers and agents to imbibe the spirit of true and proper declaration,
while thanking all my officers for their teamwork and integrity driven performance.
I will also like to thank our compliant traders using Onne Port to keep up the good work”.