Customs destroys 2310 cartons of frozen chicken in Owerri

Category: News Published on Sunday, 03 March 2013 02:45 Written by Johnkennedy Uzoma, Owerri Hits: 617

The Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit Zone C’ Owerri has destroyed 2,310 cartons of impounded frozen poultry with duty paid value of N23 million.

The destruction exercise took place yesterday on the premises of the Area Command of the service along Owerri/Onitsha industrial layout in the presence of officials from the NAFDAC, SSS, National Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA).
Supervising the exercise, the Comptroller of Customs, Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone C’ Owerri, Mr Victor David Dimka said the consignment was impounded along Owerri/Port Harcourt highway on 27th February 2013.
He said the driver of the truck carrying the frozen poultry was arrested while investigations to unravel the smuggler(s) continues.
He said the product was covered with bags of soul dust, bags of rice, vegetable oil and different types of drinks to prevent the officials from identifying the real product.
According to him, interception of the truck was necessitated by valuable information from sister organizations, adding that officers immediately went after the truck and tracked it down.
The comptroller said frozen poultry has been banned for a long time stressing that it is as result of this ban that the Comptroller General of Customs directed and empowered them not to rest on their oars to bring to the barest minimum all forms of smuggling activities in the zone.