The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said it will deploy modern technology to reduce the activities of smugglers across the country to the barest minimum.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adeniyi, made this known on Monday in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, during his familiarization tour of the Kwara Area Command.
According to the Comptroller-General, if the nefarious activities of these unscrupulous smugglers are left unchecked, the economic prosperity of the country will be undermined and jeopardized.
He added that all land borders would be properly manned to ensure sanity in all areas.
He lauded the officers of the Kwara Area Command for their diligence, commitment, and painstaking efforts in keeping the activities of smugglers under control, noting that the Service’s operations within Kwara State and other parts of the country had yielded positive results.
The Comptroller-General disclosed that between January 2025 and now, a total of 53,000 litres of petrol with a duty-paid value of N53 million were intercepted along the Kwara North axis.
He also mentioned that a suspect, identified as Nafiu Salami, a driver of a vehicle conveying 162 Jerry cans of 25 litres of petroleum, had been arrested.
He attributed the rise in petrol smuggling to the low price of the commodity in Nigeria, compared with the price in neighbouring Benin Republic and Cameroon.
However, he warned those involved in smuggling activities to desist or face the full wrath of the law.
In her remarks, the Comptroller of Nigeria Customs Service, Kwara Area Command, Comptroller Faith Ojeifo, said the Command would ensure a total fight against the activities of smugglers in the state.
She described smuggling as economic sabotage that requires collective efforts to be eliminated.
Comptroller Ojeifo urged the residents of border communities to support the Service by providing intelligence on the activities of smugglers in their midst, enabling it to succeed in nipping these activities in the bud
