Customs seize N4bn Tokunbo Cars, Motorcycles, Others in Six Months

The Nigeria Customs Service says it seized 44 units of imported used cars (popularly known as Tokunbo cars), motorcycles and other unauthorized goods with a duty-paid value of N4 billion within the first half of 2023.

The Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja, confirmed the seizure in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement further said the unit arrested 60 suspects and recovered a total of N400m as revenue through the issuance of demand notices.

The statement read in part, “Other seizures made within the period under review include 14,015 bundle of Indian hemp, 1,064 bales of used clothing, 450 drums by 106kg of carbide, 220-foot containers of unprocessed wood, 1,448 pieces of foreign rugs, 30 units of used motorcycles, 44 units of used vehicles (tokunbo), 218,575 litres of petrol, 860 cartons of foreign poultry products, 833 pieces of used tyres.

“Notable among the seizures is rice which amounts to 36,742 X 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice equivalent to 62 truck loads. Some of them were ferried through bush paths using motorcycles and rickety vehicles as means of conveyance.”

The unit, through the Federal High Courts, convicted 11 suspects for committing offences of improper importation, assaulting Custom officers, possession of foreign parboiled rice, and possession of pangolin scales meant for export.

“While some other smuggling and related cases instituted in the courts are at various stages of prosecution and would be followed up diligently, we wish to express our profound gratitude to sister security agencies for their determined cooperation in the course of our operations.

“Special mention to the Department of State Security Services – Oyo State Command for the arrest of a notorious suspect that was on the wanted list for the attack on a Customs patrol team escorting exhibits. Interestingly, this suspect was arrested and handed over to the unit yesterday,” the statement said.

The Service further said within the first six months of the year, the activities of the unit resulted in a high volume of seizures with some suspects arrested.

“We also succeeded in preventing the entry of dangerous or harmful substances like illicit drugs into society. Let me say again that for the second half of 2023, our raid against smugglers will be ferocious with a renewed determination to uncover them using intelligence-backed enforcement.

“We shall get uncooperative traders and their agents arrested and prosecuted in addition to seizing their wares,” the statement added.