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Unlike previous years, the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has been identified as one of the major zone that would determine the law enforcement agency's chances of surpassing its revenue target for Year 2025 considering the remarkable achievements recorded including exceeding the assigned benchmark for Y2024 by 57.6 percent, recording over N896 million.

A further breakdown of the revenue showed that N569 million was approved for the zone as revenue for 2024 but the Customs officers led by the former Comptroller, Kola Oladeji, surpassed this, collecting N896 million, ensuring that over 50 percent of the approved revenue target was brought into the country's coffers through introduction of modern strategies with human face which assisted the NCS to record N6.1 trillion during the outgone year.

Aside from surpassing the revenue target, the zone, which covers the southwest states, further hit the ground running in the first quarter of the Year 2025, raking into the Federal Government purse through the NCS over N121 million, to ensure the law enforcement agency maintain its role as principal contributors to Nigeria’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), a duty that is pivotal to the successful implementation of the nation’s budget.

The total revenue generated within the last 15 months by the zone in spite of not being in charge of major entry ports amounted to over N1,017 billion, making it one of the best zones.

In July 2024, over N133 million was generated through documentary checks and issuance of Demand Notices on consignments that were found to have been short-paid. Comparing the month of July 2023 with July 2024, the revenue generated increased by N96,087,133.79K at 245 percent increase.

Aside from the revenue recorded, the Customs intercepted several imported contraband goods including rice bags, vehicles, second-hand clothes, illicit drugs, and other natural property of the country that were about to be exported abroad, including Donkey skins, worth over N18 billion from smugglers operating in the southwest states of the country.

A check on the major interceptions made by the zone by our correspondent within the period under review revealed that over 10,000 Donkey skins worth about N8 billion were seized from smugglers who were about to leave the shores of the country through the Lagos ports.

Also, under the tenure of Oladeji, the officers recovered 11,870 cutlasses from smugglers before handing it over to criminals who were said to be waiting to have access to the items within the southwest zone.

Other items seized showed that about 50,000 bags of foreign parboiled rice of 50kg each, over 191,000 liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), more than 7,861 kg of Cannabis sativa, over 37,630 sachets of Tramadol.

Within the period under review, it includes over 207 units of motor vehicles, over 6,755 cartons of foreign frozen poultry products, more than 1,400 bales of used clothes, and over 1,700 units of used refrigerator compressors and 317 cartons of illicit medicament.

The rough figures were derived from the Zone's performance report revealed during the House of Representative Committee on Customs and excise visit to the command as part of its oversight function.

As gathered, these achievements did come without spilling smugglers bloods but as a result of the introduction of novel operational strategies including from the region particularly through its Operation Swift Sting.

Using this strategy, the zone embarked on aggressive intelligence gathering rather than the previous mode of enforcement, which included engaging the smugglers in gun duels.

Through this, they secured the conviction of three defendants for various offences at the Federal High Court with investigation on-going on other cases wherein 12 arrested defendants in 2025 would be arranged at the conclusion of investigation

Also, in the zone under Oladeji, Customs officers engaged stakeholders’ on the need to support their operations, which later gave the residents of southwest confidence to work for the zone in achieving their core mandates.

Oladeji explained that the Operation Swift Sting achievements underscore his team's determination to protect the nation's economy and security against illicit Cross Border Trade and movement around our borders.

This also underscores the importance of careful monitoring and intelligence at preventing smuggling and ensuring that all imports are properly declared and taxed, he added.

According to him, smuggling operations that employ ingenious concealment methods could have a significant impact on the nation's economy and security if not checked with modern intelligence tools.

Meanwhile, Oladeji reiterated Customs' zero-tolerance stance against smuggling while assuring that the Service would bring perpetrators to justice and also ensure deterrence from illicit trade.

In the course of fighting the menace of smuggling, we also raised awareness about its dangers and the importance of complying with customs regulations. We remain resolute in protecting the nation's economy, security, and health through coordinated synergy with relevant stakeholders.

Following the achievement, the House of Representatives Committee on Customs and Excise led by the committee chairman, Leke Abejide, praised the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) led by Comptroller Kola Oladeji, for adopting novel enforcement strategies against smugglers that aided its significant advancements in revenue generation for the country.

He said that the improvement in the Zone's records have strengthened the House of Representatives' belief that the Customs officers have been able to prevent smugglers from sabotaging the country's economy through illegal importation of drugs and other contraband items.

We have gone through the entire premises, and we have seen all the giant strides that have been made by the FOU Zone A under the Comptroller Kola Oladeji. The seizure strategies were commendable because they have done it with the best strategy that prevented the loss of human lives.

We want to use this medium to encourage them not to relent in their effort because the economic saboteurs are trying to discourage their work, but from what we have seen today, we want to commend them. Our belief is that this commendation will encourage them to do more for the nation.

We have been able to see where they need help, which we can assist through legislation. This is the essence that we have come here, the lawmaker added.