Border: Joint security seizes N11bn worth of goods

TRACKING___Operation Swift Response, an exercise under the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), said it arrested 1,243 irregular immigrants and 622 suspected smugglers as of 31st August. In addition to the arrest, the team, which comprises men from Nigeria Customs Service, Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), in collaboration with the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) as well as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and other security and intelligence agencies, made varied seizures of illegal items.

Some of the seized items include 134,042 bags of parboiled foreign rice; 9,600 bags of NPK fertilizer; 1,791 vehicles; 3,565,461.9 litres of PMS; 5,007 drums filled with PMS; 68,436.3 jerry cans of PMS; 130 engine boats; 847 motorcycles; 17,212.6 jerry cans of vegetable oil; 813 packs of Tramadol; 274 bags of cannabis with estimated monetary value totalling N11,030,062,952.50. Chief Public Relations Officer of Customs Service, Joseph Atta, who confirmed the breakdown in a statement yesterday, said the seizures and arrests took place across four sectors of the North-West, North-Central, South-West, and South-South geopolitical zones.

A year ago, the Federal Government, determined to curb smuggling light weapons into country, on the path of food sufficiency, stem the flow of illicit arms into the country and improve national security, set up Operation Swift Response. “The joint border security exercise has, no doubt, saved the country huge resources and enhanced national security. For instance, the smuggling of drugs and proliferation of small arms and light weapons, which are drivers to terrorism and other forms of criminalities in the country, have been considerably curtailed.

“One year into the ongoing joint border drill, codenamed ‘Exercise SWIFT RESPONSE’, appreciable results have been recorded, particularly in the areas of security, economy, agriculture and inter-agency collaboration,” Customs said. It added that the exercise has made it difficult for terrorists and other criminals to acquire arms and ammunition, while criminal elements find it challenging to make their way into the country through the land and maritime borders. This, it said, contributed to the reduction in cases of transnational organized crimes.