By Peter Adelowo
The Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, says it will deploy the use of modern technology to reduce the activities of smugglers to the minimum across the country.
The Comptroller General of Customs Service, Bashir Adeniyi stated this during his familiarisation tour of Nigeria Customs Service Area command in Ilorin, Kwara state.
He said the activities of smugglers if left uncheck would undermine the economic prosperity of the country.
Comptroller General Adeniyi said all the land boarder would be properly manned to ensure sanity in the areas.
He explained that the service operation within Kwara state and other part of the country has yielded a lot of positive results.
The controller General noted that within this period a total of 53,000 liters of petrol with a duty paid value of 53 million naira has been intercepted along Kwara North axis.
He said a suspect identified as Nafiu Salami who was a driver of a Vehicle conveying 162 Jerry cans of 25 liters of petroleum has been arrested.
The Customs boss attributed the rise in the smuggling of petroleum product to the low price of the commodity in the country, icompared with neighbouring Benin Republic and Cameroon.
In his remarks the Comptroller of Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, Kwara Area Command, Comptroller Faith Ojeifo said smuggling is an economic sabotage that requires collective efforts to put an end to it.
Comptroller Ojeifo urged the residents of border communities to support the service with intelligence information on the activities of smugglers in their midst to enable it succeed.
