REVEALED: Seme is Nigeria’s No. 1 fuel smuggling route
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it seized 174,015 litres of smuggled petroleum products worth N27, 755,492 in one year. Seme, the border town between Nigeria and Republic Benin notorious for smuggling, is the preferred choice of the illicit trade. Joseph Attah, public relations officer, NCS, told NAN on Monday that the clamp down on the products was made in various areas of the country where cross-border smuggling was prevalent. “In the case of petroleum products, the statistics here is that of January 2017 to January 2018, a total of 174,015 litres have been seized across the Customs Commands,” he said. “Further breakdown shows that within this period, 81,270 litres of petroleum products were seized in Seme border, 69,150 litres in West Martine Command, 10,000 litres in Federal Operations Unit Zone D, that is the north-east. “In Sokoto, 1,775 litres were seized, 10,5,00 litres in Ogun, 1,320 litres in Adamawa/Taraba, making a total of 174,015 litres with Duty Paid V...