The Customs Area Controller, Comptroller Muhammad Jibrin, said this on Monday when he led newsmen to APM Terminals, Apapa, where the container was intercepted.
Jibrin said that the container No: DFOU6122880, was discovered during
scanning.
He said that the importer made a false declaration that the container was
laden with apples.
“Upon scanning, officers discovered the container was containing 2,700
cartons of frozen tilapia fish from Turkey. The aforementioned fish species is
under restriction.
“More so, importers of allowable species of fish are expected to obtain
licence, and permit before such importation into the country.
“We have scanners that are working but most of the scanners are
inadequate for operations,’’ Jibrin said.
Jibrin said that the command had zero tolerance for smuggling and false
declaration in line with the policy of the Comptroller-General of Customs,
Retired Col. Hameed Ali.
He said that the command would continue to uncover and stop any attempt at
breaching the law as regards imports and exports transactions through the
command.
The controller, however, advised stakeholders relating with Customs service
to be law-abiding “as no stone will be left unturned in enforcing government
fiscal policy regulations’’.
According to him, the command usually engaged stakeholders in interactive
session monthly to ensure that both Customs and stakeholders remained committed
to government’s policies relating to clearance of goods at the ports.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Federal Government on
Thursday, noted that smugglers were beginning to flood the markets with harmful
frozen fish illegally imported into the country through the land borders.
The Minister of State for Agriculture, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, said this at
the Abuja Headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (FMARD).
The minister said that those involved in the act were undermining the
efforts of government despite the fish importation policy and ban on frozen
farmed fish importation into the country.
