The Western Marine Command of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday destroyed smuggled poultry products with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N23.7million.
The Comptroller of the NCS Command, Binga Boyilila said during the exercise that the poultry products were seized by customs officers in Lagos.
He said it was the second time within one week that the command was destroying poultry products.
The comptroller said that two recent seizures were from two axis, one from Ebeche waterways, Ojo and the other one was from Badagry waterways.
Boyilila said that the two seizures summed up to 2349 cartons of illegal poultry products.
“We are here to witness another day of destruction of poultry products and we are always ready to do that if the smugglers refuse to stop.
“We want to say that if smugglers are not tired of losing their money, we are not tired of destroying it and they should look for better things to do than to smuggle in products that are illegal.
“It is better they use their money to do legitimate business, and if they don’t have any, we have enough land to farm to give them a legitimate business to do.
“This is the second time in a week that we are destroying these products, and today we have to combine two, and as you can see, the sight is not good at all and thus the need to do away with them quickly,” he said.
Boyilila advised smugglers to look for better and legitimate business to do, as the Nigerian Customs was always ready for them.
“We can imagine what this N23.7 million could have achieved if put to legitimate use, but some people have just decided to bury it alive and we have just done that for them.
“Smugglers should have a rethink and go into legitimate business because Nigerian Customs is ready for them anytime,” he said.
The NCS boss said that the secret of the interception was intelligence gathering.
