Smuggled items worth over N29m have been seized by the Joint Border Patrol Team, Sector 3 of the Nigeria Customs Service.
The seized items include 550 live cartridges, 751 bags of foreign parboiled rice, 1,251 jerry cans of petrol, seven bales of imported second hand clothes and one motorcycle used in conveying smuggled petrol.
Comptroller Olugboyega Peters, Coordinator of the sector, which has Kwara, Kogi, Niger and Benue states under his command, said 17 suspects were arrested during the operations.
At a press conference at the Kwara state Command Headquarters in Ilorin on Wednesday, Comptroller Peters said the suspects arrested over the 550 ammunition, were intercepted in a commercial bus at Adikpo junction in Benue state.
He revealed that the bus was heading to Taraba state from Onitsha in the South East axis of the country.
Comptroller Peters said “on searching the vehicle, two black Bacco bags containing pump action cartridges suspected to have been smuggled into the country were discovered.
“The ammunition, driver and the suspect were arrested and brought to Sector 3, headquarters in Ilorin, Kwara State,” he added.
He said after the preliminary investigation at the Kwara state command of the Nigeria Customs Service, the suspects were handed over to the Nigeria Police Force in Benue state for further investigations as the law of jurisdiction demands.
The Sector Coordinator, warned those who intend to use the Yuletide season to make money by smuggling prohibited items to have a second thought, because the sector will dominate the general area with aggressive patrols to deny freedom of action for smugglers.
“I want to assure Nigerians that the Joint Border Patrol Team Sector 3, will do all it takes to ensure that smuggling suffocates and in due course collapses,” he vowed.
Comptroller Peters, however, said for the desired success to be achieved by the Sector, host communities, youths, community and religious leaders, as well as local dwellers must stop seeing smuggling as a means of livelihood and equally stop conspiring or assisting the perpetrators of the heinous crime.
He appealed to the general public to continue to provide credible information to the Sector operating within their localities.
