NOTWITHSTANDING the closure of the borders, Federal Government said it has seized goods worth about N11 billion in the last one year.
This is even as it stated that it has made appreciable progress on the border closure in the one year.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, Hameed Ali said the exercise also made it more difficult for terrorists and other criminals to acquire arms and ammunition, while criminal elements find it challenging to make their way into the country through the land and maritime borders.
“This has thus contributed to the reduction in cases of transnational organized crimes,” he stated.
Ali, in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Deputy Comptroller, Joseph Attah, said, “Nigeria remains committed to the ongoing diplomatic engagements to finding lasting solutions to the concerns that necessitated the partial border closure,”
Meanwhile, the border closure has elicited concerns among the neighbouring West African countries that have lamented the negative effects of the action on their various economies.
Codenamed ‘Exercise SWIFT RESPONSE ’, the exercise, which commenced on 20th August, 2019 involves the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), in collaboration with the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) as well as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and other security and intelligence agencies, under the coordination of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).
Ali said: “The present administration, through ONSA took a definitive step to put Nigeria on the path to food sufficiency, stem the flow of illicit arms into the country and improve national security through the exercise. The joint border security exercise, has no doubt saved the country huge resources and enhanced national security. For instance, the smuggling of drugs and proliferation of small arms and light weapons which are drivers to terrorism and other forms of criminalities in the country have been considerably curtailed”
According to him, the ONSA which is coordinating the exercise has continued to record large numbers of seizures and arrests from the four sectors of the North-West, North-Central, South-West, and South-South geopolitical zones.
Breaking down the seizures, he said As at 31st August 2020, 1,243, irregular immigrants and 622 suspected smugglers have been arrested, while seizures including 134,042 bags of parboiled foreign rice; 9,600 bags of NPK fertilizers have been made.
Other seizures are: 1,791 vehicles; 3,565,461.9 litres of petrol; 5,007 drums filled with petrol; 68,436.3 Jerricans of fuel; 130 engine boats; 847 motorcycles; 17,212.6 Jerricans of vegetable oil; 813 packs of Tramadol; 274 bags of cannabis; among other items.
The estimated monetary value of the seizures is N11,030,062,952.50.
He said the exercise has also boosted production of agricultural products, especially local rice, tomatoes, maize, poultry among others, and this has stimulated the growth of the agricultural sector/economy.
“Today, Nigeria is fast attaining self-sufficiency in rice production, as the border drill has drastically reduced rice smuggling into the country and catalyzed rice production by farmers across the country, while millions of direct and indirect jobs have been created. Huge amount in foreign exchange, that previously went into rice importation saved. The rice farmers in the country are now venturing beyond rice cultivation to milling, packaging and marketing,” he stated.
Ali however noted that, “while the priority for now remains to keep our borders safe from any inimical activity that would compromise our national interests and by extension our national security. We appeal to Nigerians to continue their support for the ongoing efforts towards making the nation better secured and economically viable”.
