The Nigeria Customs Service on Wednesday auctioned 14,375 litres of petrol seized from smugglers bound for Cameroon.

The product was seized by the customs special anti-smuggling task force named ‘Operation Whirlwind’ in the Calabar axis of the zone.

The national coordinator of the task force in Zone C, the deputy comptroller of customs, Abubakar Aliyu, disclosed that the duty paid value for the product stood at N14.4 million.

According to him, over the past few weeks, acting on credible and actionable intelligence, our operatives successfully dismantled a coordinated network involved in the illegal export of petrol to Cameroon.

“During the operation, we intercepted 235 jerrycans of 25 litres each as well as 40 drums (200 litres each) of PMS, amounting to a total volume of 14,375 litres with a total DPV of N14.4 million.

“This success was recorded through sustained surveillance and strategic interdictions across identified flashpoints, including Ikang, Bakassi, Ikom, and Ikot-Idareka,” he said.

He added that the auctioned products were being diverted for illegal export in clear violation of Nigeria’s laws governing the distribution and movement of petroleum products.

Mr Aliyu stressed that the customs remained resolute in its constitutional mandate to safeguard Nigeria’s economy, secure critical national assets, and combat all forms of smuggling and economic sabotage.

Momoh Dauda, comptroller of the Rivers/Calabar Free Trade Zone/Akwa Ibom area command, noted that smuggling undermined legitimate trade and government revenue.

“Smuggling in any form is economic sabotage. It distorts the market, deprives the government of critical revenue needed for national development, threatens local industries, and in some cases poses serious security and health risks to our citizens.

“The NCS will not relent in confronting these illegal activities and will deal decisively, according to the law of the land, with anybody caught in the act,” he stated. 

(NAN)