According to Salisu Abdullahi, the Customs Area Controller of the command, this information was shared during a press briefing on the command's activities in May.

During the specified period, the command seized a total of 14,980 liters of fuel, which had been illegally packed in drums and jerry cans.

“The seized petrol is going to be auctioned instantly after this briefing. However, due to the inflammable nature of premium motor spirit, most of it had been disposed of in line with the standard operating procedure and the accrued proceeds remitted into the Federation Account. It is evident that the smuggling of PMS has reduced drastically owing to the removal of the subsidy and the product is available in all filling stations.”

Abdullahi added that during the period under review, the command recorded 16 seizures of different contraband.

“Other contraband seized included: 494×50kg bags of dry blended NPK fertiliser, three vehicles namely: Toyota Starlet and two Toyota Corollas, used for conveying foreign parboiled rice, 90x50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice and 960 pieces of foreign soaps. The total duty paid value of the seizures stands at NN22.9m,” the area controller said.

He explained that the NPK fertiliser was seized because of the restrictions placed on the movement of the product, especially in the Northeastern states.

“It might interest you to ask that now that we are in the farming season, fertiliser will be highly needed by the farmers to improve their farm yield. So, why the apprehension of the fertiliser? The NCS is one of the agencies saddled with the responsibility of implementing the Federal Government policy on the movement of fertiliser. The apprehension of dry blended NPK fertiliser is predicated on the restriction of movement of the product placed by the National Fertiliser Quality (control) Act, 2019 Section 10, which restricts its movement, especially into the Northeastern states.”