First Half: Area ll Command Onne Generates N78.1b Revenue

The Nigeria Customs Service, Area ll Command Onne Port, Rivers State have recorded a total of N78,167,080,299.21 as revenue generated from January to June 2021.

This was made known in a statement by Ifeoma Ojekwu, the Public Relations Officer, Area II Command, Onne Port, on Friday in Port Harcourt.

According to the statement the figure is N31.5 billion above the N 46,661,656,918.3 collected between January and June of 2020, which signifies 67.52 per cent increase of the Command’s revenue.

It stated that the revenue generation was actualised through strict enforcement of fiscal policies, uncompromising implementation of government directives and diligent trade facilitation among other strategies put in place by Comptroller Auwal Mohammed, Customs Area Controller (CAC) of the command.

“Aside the above stated improvement in comparative mid-year revenue generation between 2020 and 2021, the Command also made some other very laudable feats in export and anti-smuggling activities.

“In the month of June 2020, the Command generated the sum of N14,552,562,033.70 which is an unprecedented feat in our history as an area Command,” Ojekwu said.

She said that the Export statistics of the Command showed that good worth N52.6 billion have been exported through Onne port between January and June, 2021.

“These exports include sesame seeds, ginger, cocoa beans, hibiscus, fluorite ore, lead ore, palm kernel shell, cotton, float glass, aluminum ingot etc, worth NESS value of N260,150,300.13.

“The total tonnage of the said export stood at 331.356.39 tonnes with FOB value of $137,943,276.32,’’ Ojekwu said.

The statement added that the Command made 19 seizures totaling N8,299,061,138.00 Duty Paid Value (DPV) on  enforcement/anti-smuggling activities within the period under review.

Ojekwu said: “Chief among them was over N3.7 billion worth of 1,387 cartons of tramadol in a single seizure with 1000 cartons of tiles used to conceal the Tramadol made in May, 2021.

“Other seizures made include: two units of Used Mitsubishi buses; 210 bales of second hand clothing; 4,029 pcs of used tyres ; 16 units of Used engine gear box and auto spare parts;310 pallets of laser ketchup; and  2,721 bags of 50kg foreign rice.

“Others are: 37 cartons of wine; 124 cartons of tapentadol; 956 Jerrycans of 25litres of vegetable oil; 750 cartons of supergold candle; 2,970 cartons of foreign soap; 89 bales of fabrics and 500 cartons of medicaments.”

She said that four suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures and were at various stages of investigation and prosecution in courts of competent jurisdiction.

The Area Controller emphasised in the statement that at various meetings with the Command management team and parade involving all officers that the Command would remain unrelenting and uncompromising in diligently examining every cargo that went through the port.

“This is in line with the Comptroller General of Customs zero tolerance for infractions,” it stated.

Comptroller Mohammed had emphasised during a recent meeting that the Area ll Command, Onne Port would remain a no go area for perpetrators of any trade malpractice.

“We will keep doing our best in ensuring that all import and export cargoes are duly examined. The long arms of the law will not spare any importer, exporter or trader who dares our resolve by perpetrating illegalities in Onne Port.

“We have demonstrated this in the first half of the year and will continue to improve on our recorded milestones.

“I am calling on all importers and agents to imbibe the spirit of true and proper declaration. While thanking all my officers for their teamwork and integrity driven performance, I will also like to thank our compliant traders using Onne Port to keep up the good work,’’ the CAC said.