A truck belonging to Dangote transporting 150 bags of foreign rice has been nabbed by the men of the Nigerian Customs Service along Mayo-Belwa road in Adamawa State.

The arrest is one in several other arrests made by the Customs as part of its crackdown on smuggling activities in Adamawa and Taraba states.

The Adamawa and Taraba Comptroller of Customs, Kamardeen Olumoh, made the disclosure while presenting the performance report of his command to newsmen in Yola on Friday.

Olumoh said: “One Dangote truck carrying 150 bags of foreign rice was intercepted along Mayo-Belwa road on the last day of the year.

“The driver escaped but we are sure that Dangote, being a responsible corporate entity, will identify and apprehend the driver and hand him over to us for prosecution.

“The command generated N168,294,227.83 from January to December 2018 as against N186,113,181.28 generated in 2017.

“However, the amount fell short of the revenue target of N197,301,635.98 for the year under review.

“This can be attributed to challenges faced by officers and men of the command which include the current state of insurgency in the region, sectarian situations in the Republic of Cameroon and recurring communal clashes in both Adamawa and Taraba states.”

Comptroller Olumoh further explained that the command, made seizures of bags of rice, used clothing and petroleum products with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of over N59 million.

Giving a breakdown of seizures for 2018 he said: “The command was able to make 61 seizures, which were mainly foreign rice, totalling 1,740 bags, used vehicles, second-hand clothing and 21,270 litres of petroleum products with a DPV of N59,781,006.81.

“Three suspects are being tried in relation to the smuggling offences.”

Olumoh lamented a decline in the command’s revenue generation for the year falling below expectation, a development he blamed on insecurity and flooding within the command.

•Sourced from a Daily Sun report

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