The total revenue that the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) collected in 2017 was N1,037,102,179,400.58, according to the Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr. Joseph Attah.
Speaking with reporters in his office in Abuja yesterday, he said the robust relationship which the service had with the National Assembly in the year under review was instrumental in achieving the collection that was the highest revenue ever collected by the organization.
He said he was surprised to read in a section of the media that the NCS blamed the lawmakers for not performing better.
According to him, the NCS has donated a total of 421 trailer loads of rice totalling 252,666 units of 50kg bags valued at N3,789,990,000 in the last 22 months to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS).
Attah, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs, told newsmen that the donations, which were in line with a presidential directive on the disposal of perishable seizures after due diligence of court condemnation, were made in four states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Edo .
The donations, he said, were made by the National Logistics Committee consisting members from NCS, Nigerian Army, Nigerian Airforce, Nigeria Police Force, FRSC, NSCDC, NAFDAC, NTA, NAN, NUJ and Red Cross.
In addition to the rice donations, he said the customs also donated 82,140 jerrycans of 25 litre vegetable oil valued at N985,680,000; soap valued at N52,625,700 in 19,491 cartons and other items, including clothing, insecticides ,foot wear, bags and 1 x40ft container loaded with frozen tilapia fish.
Attah said sustained customs’ anti-smuggling efforts had kept customs warehouses filled with seizures despite the various donations made by the service to IDPs.
“Despite tonnes of rice and other relief items already transferred to the IDPs, some NCS warehouses are still filled with rice. This only shows that the sustained onslaught against unrepentant rice smugglers continues to yield positive results.
”The ones in the warehouses now are either awaiting court condemnation or forfeiture to the Federal Government or have been already allocated to governments of the affected states which pay the Army Corp of Transport and Logistics for their transportation to the IDPs
”Eventually , the seized rice and other perishable items currently in the warehouses will be given to fellow Nigerians affected by the unfortunate insurgency in the North -East,” Attah said.