Customs intercepts 27 hilux vans worth N432m in Abuja

     Vehicles Valued at N432 million, were intercepted along Kubwa expressway in Abuja over non payment of custom duty.

The Nigeria Customs Services (NCS) has intercepted 27 Toyota Hilux vans suspected to have been smuggled inot the country.

   Conducting newsmen round the vehicles at the Customs headquarters Friday morning, the Deputy Comptroller General (DCG) Enforcement, Investigation, and Inspection, Aminu Dangaladima said based on credible intelligence, operatives of the Federal Compliance Team on Wednesday evacuated the vehicles from two car stands.   He said,  "We urge owners of the vehicles to come forward with evidence of duty payment or face the risk of total seizure and outright forfeiture to the federal government." Dangaladima noted that each of the vehicles was estimated at a cost and Duty Payment Value (DPV) of N15m which totaled the N432m.

    

     Evacuation of the mostly 2017 vehicle model is coming on the heels of similar seizures in September when the Service seized 18 assorted vehicles of which 13 were bullet proof, from the Central Area in the Abuja city centre.  The Comptoller General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) at a recent lecture at the IBB International Golf and Country Club in Abuja said the Service has seized 3,665 vehicles between 2015 and 2017 with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N13.164 billion. 

    

    He said in year 2015, 1,917 vehicles were seized with DPV of N3.856bn; another 1,483 valued at 2.683bn were seized in 2016. In 2017 so far,  265 vehicles have been seized with DPV of N6.625bn. Dangaladima also said more arrests have been made on the over 3,000 arms smuggled into the country from Turkey this year, just as Col. Ali will leave for Turkey with President Muhammadu Buhari next week to hold bilateral talks which should put an end to the many smuggling cases from the country.