Customs Seizes 13 Smuggled Cars From Senator

The Compliance Task Force set up by the Controller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Colonel Hameed Ali (retd), has impounded 223 vehicles, 13 of which belong to a senator from Kano State.

The Task Force Zonal Commander, Bala Dole, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano on Monday.

Dole said the vehicles, belonging to the unidentified senator, were 12 new Toyota Hilux and one Land Cruiser Jeep.

Dole, who declined to name the said senator, said the 13 vehicles were trailed from Maigatari in Jigawa State, following an intelligence report, indicating they were smuggled into Nigeria via land borders.

He said: “Based on the intelligence report, the vehicles were 30 in number, but we were able to trail 13 of them, 12 of which were hidden in the senator’s compound.

“We sealed the house and retrieved the vehicles and they are now in our custody.

There are three senators representing Kano State.

They are Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Kano Central Senatorial District; Barau Jibrin, Kano North Senatorial District; and Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya, Kano South Senatorial District.

All were elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress.

The task force also said it seized other items, including foodstuff, worth N269.5 million in Kano and Jigawa States within eight months.

The items included 9,757 bags of rice; 2,916 of foreign spaghetti; 2,770 cartons of foreign vegetable oil; and 999 cartons of macaroni.

Dole said others were 889 veils of second hand clothes, 50 used school bags, 110 cartons of new foreign shoes, 956 bags of mosquito coil and six fairly used cars.

He added: “The total value of the seizure made by the task force since it was established in July 2016, excluding the 13 senator’s vehicles, is N269.5 million.

“We are yet to determine the cost of the 13 vehicles belonging to the senator.”