Photos: Nigeria Customs seized 40ft container of fish worth N22milloin for false declaration

The Nigeria Customs Service, Apapa Command, has confiscated a 40-ft container loaded with Tilapia Fish from Turkey.

Speaking with the newsmen in Lagos, Jibrin Musa, the Customs Area Controller of the Command, revealed that the importer professed that the content of the container was apples but scanning showed it to be 2700 cartons of banned frozen fish.

He told reporters that, aside the crime of false declaration, the import also breached the law as it failed the condition for license and quota expected for importers of acceptable fish species into Nigeria.

He said '' As part of our collective resolve to ensure strict compliance with government import prohibition rule, we recently uncovered an attempt to smuggle tilapia fish into the country. In a bid to evade detection and arrest, the importer made a false declaration that that the 1x40ft container was laden with apples''

''Upon scanning, we discovered this to be untrue as the container contained 2700 cartons of tilapia frozen fish from Turkey,the aforementioned fish species is under restriction.More so,importers of allowable species of fish are expected to obtain license and permit and necessary quota before such 

importation into the country.

'' Consequent upon this false declaration, Nigeria Customs Service Apapa hereby declare this container with number DFOU6122880 seized while investigation is ongoing to bring all the accomplices to book. The duty paid value (DPV) is about N22,193,384.00 ''

While parading a suspect before journalists, Jibrin said, investigations are ongoing on the issue and adding that his commission has commenced communication with related agencies like National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS) on the consignment.

Jibrin ruled out the option of destroying the seized fish and noted that the command will wait for directive from the headquarters for the next step of action.

He also warned culprits of unlawful import and export practices in Apapa to cease from it as the long arms of the law will always get them.