Customs Intercepts N1.5bn Petrol in Ogun Creek

Eromosele Abiodun

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja has announced that it intercepted N1.5 billion worth of petroleum products from smugglers on their way to Benin Republic.

The NCS in a statement yesterday said the petroleum product sandwiched in about 12 wooden speed boats had about 50,000 Jerry cans set to be smuggled from Ijofin creek under Ipokia Local Government Area (LGA) of Ogun State.

Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs, Zone A, Aminu Dahiru, in the statement said he was accompanied by the Customs Area Controller of FOU Zone A, Mohammed Aliyu and controller of Ogun Command, Michael Agbara on the mission.

He said the interception was product of intelligence gathering by officers of the unit.

Exportation of petroleum products through the creeks, he stressed, is an illegal trade, adding that the service will continue to deal with it.

According to him, “This is an unimaginable seizure. Since it is a petroleum product, we do not expect it to be smuggled into Nigeria.

“This is a big seizure and it needed to be showcased because of the size of the volume involved. The 11,000 jerry cans that were evacuated worth and in addition, there are more than triple of it in the creeks about to be smuggled out of the country. So, we thought it’s time to show Nigerians activities of economic saboteurs and how we are dealing ruthlessly with them.”

He added: “We are sure of what we have at FOU because that gave us exactly 11,000 jerrycans of petroleum products, and what we have here is more than what we have their and what have been evacuated is just a pinch but, the value can only be determined if we know the quantity but the other one at the FOU, we are able to arrive at N40 million because we multiply numbers of kegs to numbers of litres to arrive at that.