The House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise has vowed to investigate alleged diversion of containers imported with finished goods to the Free Trade Zones across the country to avoid payment of duties leading to the loss of over N1.6 trillion by the government.

Chairman of the Committee, Leke Abejide, who spoke when he led other members of the committee on an oversight visit to the Lagos Free Trade Zone, raised concern over the large quantity of hard drugs being smuggled into the country.

Abejide said the committee has a series of reports of finished goods being imported into the free zone with the aim of evading the payment of duties on such goods.

He said the committee has received reports that the criminal act is being perpetrated with the connivance of some customs licensed agents and officials of the service to shortchange the nation of needed revenues.

He said the act, which amounts to great economic sabotage, is being perpetrated through various commands of the service, saying ?Recently, over 100 trucks loaded with imported items lined up to offload their content into a free trade zone in Kano.

?What are they doing in a free trade zone when they are not carrying raw materials? They were supposed to go to a bonded terminal. We have information on all these practices.

?We know those involved in this practice and we are going to carry out an investigation dating five years back and we will recover all the revenue the government has lost over these years?.

He said the House will do everything possible to ensure that the problem is addressed, while preventing the misuse of the free trade zones to the detriment of the Nigerian economy.

He said further free trade zone companies are also in the habit of under paying their duties because of the provisions of the law which allows them to make payment three months after production.

Speaking on the seizure of hard drugs and other unregistered drugs being smuggled into the country, Abejide said the practice was worrisome as the nation?s youths are now constantly exposed to drugs.

Speaking against the backdrop of reports of seizure of large quantities of drugs such a cannabis sativa, Canadian loud and tramadol, Abejide threw his weight behind clamour for capital punishment for those involved in the smuggling of drugs into the country, blaming lack of scanners at the ports.

?We are in danger in this country if we keep allowing all these drugs to come into the country. This is happening because there are no scanners. So, we must take this issue of scanners seriously to help nip this act in the bud.

The Area Comptroller in charge of the Lagos Free Trade Zone, Olanrewaju Olumoh, told the committee that the command intercepted two containers of tramadol and one trailer load of unregistered drugs between January and March 2025.

He also informed the Committee that, despite being the youngest Command, the Lagos Free Trade Zone Command emerged as a front-runner in revenue performance, adding that so far, it has generated about N113 billion in the first three months of the year. (The Nation)

? Chairman of the House of Reps Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide, when he led the Committee to the Lagos Free Trade Zone

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