The Nigeria Customs Area Command says their offices in Mubi North,
Mubi South, Madagali and Michika Local Government Areas in Adamawa
State were shut down following the insurgent Boko Harams ransacking of
these areas.
This led to several of its officers crossing into Cameroon before they
later found their way back to Nigeria courtesy the understanding of
the French colony.
Comptroller Adamawa and Taraba States David O. Ogalu disclosed this
to newsmen shortly before the burning down of several goods seized by
the agency around 2005/2006.
According to the Comptroller, “a good number of my outposts affected
were Madagali, Michika, Mubi, Maiha, Sahuda among others.”
“We however did not have a casualty during the insurgency in the
areas mentioned even though one of our officers from Lagos who
reportedly went to Mubi to evacuate his family but was sadly kidnapped
by the insurgents and never heard of till today” he said.
At the spot where the items were burnt include one hundred and forty
six used tyres, five bales of second hand materials and assorted
materials, fifty nine cartons of expired assorted drugs, twenty eight
cartons of condensed milk and forty seven cartons of cosmetics.
Even though the destroyed items could not be quantified in monetary
terms, the tyres were put at about N1.5million.
Comptroller Ogalu stated that the command will continue to wage war
on smugglers of contrabands and other illegitimate trade within the
area command to the extend that all anti-struggling outfits in the
command have been charged to ensure that cases of smuggling are
eliminated completely or to the barest minimum.
He said the decision to burn down the goods was given by the
Comptroller General of Customs following a court order.
Ogalu also disclosed that the service made a modest generation of
N57.4 million out of a targeted N61.3million excluding VAT.
He however expressed optimism that following the military successes
in their campaign against Boko Haram, the Custom Service will realize
a leap in their revenue generation.
Those in attendance at the destruction of the goods were
representatives of the Directorate of the State Security, the Police,
NDLEA and other relevant agencies while the destruction took place
along Yola to Fufore road in Fufore Local Government Area.
