The Nigerian Customs Service says it has seized 26,625 litres of Premium Motor Spirit during attempts to smuggle the product.
The confiscation was carried out through activities of its ongoing ‘Operation Whirlwind’.
Details of this were made public by the National Coordinator of Operation Whirlwind, Comptroller Hussein Ejibunu, during a press briefing held at the Customs Headquarters in Calabar.
Ejibunu said the recent seizures were made across various locations within the Zone C axis, comprising Cross River and Akwa Ibom states, adding that most of the interceptions were at Agbaragba-Ikom, Akansoko Road and Ikom-Ogoja Road.
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The confiscated PMS, amounting to 1,065 kegs, has an estimated duty paid value of forty million naira.
Comptroller Ogbonna Gabriel, head of the Cross River/Akwa Ibom Area Command, stated that the command’s ongoing partnership with border communities will help curb smuggling activities in the region.
This operation, a joint effort by the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Nigerian Customs Service and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, aims to dismantle the networks of PMS smugglers.
(Editor: Oloyede Oworu)
