Customs Seeks Forfeiture Of N50m Seized Goods

Customs Seeks Forfeiture Of N50m Seized Goods

The Nigeria Customs Service Board Monday urged a Federal High Court in Lagos to order forfeiture of various illegally imported goods valued at N50,151,606 to the federal government.
The customs service, which made the request in an ex parte application claimed the goods were intercepted between April and June 2017.
It listed the goods to include loads of fairly used clothes, shoes, bags, bed sheets, breakable plates; 7,163 bags of foreign parboiled rice, and 147 jerry cans of vegetable oil.
Apart from these, the customs service is also seeking a forfeiture order on seven vehicles, also intercepted between April and June, the values of which were however not stated.
The ex parte application was argued by the Assistant Legal Adviser of the Nigeria Customs Service Board, Federal Operations Unit, Zone A, Ikeja, Shehu Bodinga, who appeared before the vacation judge, Justice Abdulaziz Anka.
Bodinga informed the judge that since the goods were intercepted and seized, their owners had absconded and refused to show up to claim them, having realised the severity of the punishment for their offence.
The lawyer also submitted that the Customs had received a directive from the presidency that part of the seized items should be distributed to victims of Boko Haram insurgency living in the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp in the North-East.
In a 15-paragraph affidavit attached to the application and personally deposed to by Bodinga, he averred that the goods were imported into the country in breach of Section 46(c) of the Customs and Management Act.
According to him, in some cases, the importers and their privies attempted to evade duty on the imported goods or the items they brought into the country were prohibited by law.
He said, “Apart from acts of fraudulent evasion of duty, some of the defaulters brought in outright unlawful and prohibited items, which are so classified by the Customs laws and regulations.
“I verily believe that because of the severity of the punishment and sanctions attached to the offences, the defaulters, along with their collaborators, have refused and or failed to come forward to claim the goods from the Nigeria Customs Service, thereby, abandoning same and same seized.”