The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that it confiscated pump-action guns, cartridges/ammunition, bags of rice, drums of premium motor spirit, popularly called petrol and some others items worth N12.36 billion during the 16-month period that Nigeria shut land borders with its neighbours.
According to the data released by the border patrol team showed that 90 pump action guns, 5,766 pump-action guns, cartridges/ammunition were seized during the period under review.
It also stated that 157,511 bags of rice were seized during the period.
Some of other items seized included 1,957 vehicles, 895 motorcycles, 10, 447 bags of fertilisers, 18,630 jerry cans of vegetable oil, 74,307 jerry cans of petrol, and 5,653 drums of PMS.
The NCS said the total monetary value of the items as of December 17, 2020 was N12.36 billion.
Spokesman for the NCS, Mr. Joseph Attah, said the diplomatic engagements between Nigeria and its neighbours paid off during the period of the closure.
“I want you to know that since the border closure, there have been diplomatic engagements. We’ve had meetings in Burkina Faso sometime in the past. There have been commitments to adhere to the rules as against before.
“And more importantly, the tripartite meeting among the Customs administrations of Nigeria, Niger and Benin republics led to the establishment of the joint border patrol on both sides of the border,” he said.
Attah said a lot was achieved by the government through the border closure, insisting that it was wrong to argue that the border closure had no positive result.
“When people ask what we achieved by closing the borders, I just laugh. The exchange of prohibition lists alone is a very huge achievement because we are looking at ensuring safer borders and ensuring security.
“Also, how can we operate the African Continental Free Trade Agreement if we are not able to obey our rules? So the border closure has made our borders set for the AfCFTA,” he said.
Attah urged the citizens within and outside the country to stop collaborating with criminals who try to sabotage the efforts of border patrol officers.
