The Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone ‘A’ of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has intercepted bulletproof jackets, jack knives and pistols pouches among other smuggled items worth N462.7 million inside a Toyota Sienna bus at Ijebu-Ode checkpoint in Ogun State.
Displaying the seized items to newsmen at the unit’s warehouse in Ikeja, Lagos, yesterday, the acting Area Controller of the Unit, Hussein Ejibunu, said the driver of the vehicle and 13 other suspects have been arrested in connection with some of the seizures and are at different stages of investigations and prosecution.
Ejibunu said importation of all forms of bulletproof materials, such as vests, ballistic materials and vehicles, as well as parts and accessories for all military armaments and hardware, such as guns, arms and ammunition of all kinds; lethal and non-lethal, requires an end-user certificate.
According to him, an end-user certificate is applied to, and issued by the office of the national security adviser, which loses its validity after one year from the issuance date.
He said anyone importing a controlled item must do so within the validity period of the end-user certificate.
Ejibunu said the unit made 50 seizures in the month of July 2023 under review for non-compliance with the extant Customs laws.
He listed the other seized items to include: 5,642 X 50kg bags of foreign parboiled rice equivalent to nine trailer loads, 18,925 litres jerry cans of premium motor spirit, 49 cartons of children school shoes, 181(87 kg) parcels of Indian Hemp, 357 kegs X 5 litres of vegetable oil, one unit of Honda motorcycle and two used (Tokumbo) vehicles.
He disclosed that three suspects and Cannabis sativa with a net weight of 7,728 kilogrammes would be handed over to officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Lagos State Command, for further investigation and prosecution.
