Nigeria shuts down car marts to check smuggling
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has embarked on a crackdown and has shut down some car marts suspected to have smuggled vehicles.
The crackdown is in continuation of the war on smuggling in line with the closure of land borders across the country.
The crackdown is being carried out by members of the Comptroller General of the service’s strike force and officers attached to the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone ‘A’, Ikeja.
They stormed the popular Berger along Apapa-Oshodi Express Road and other major car dealers’ premises across Lagos in search of smuggled vehicles and subsequently shut down the car marts until further notice.
It was learnt that the car marts were closed on the orders of the Comptroller General of the Service, Col. Hameed Ali (rtd), for allegedly retailing smuggled vehicles in the shops.
The Customs Public Relations Officer, Joseph Attah, who confirmed the development but denied that car dealers who are not involved in selling smuggled cars were shut down.
“Yes a number of car marts were shutdown based on credible information that there were smuggled vehicles in these car marts, but the sealing is just temporary.
As from this week we will assess the situation and advised them accordingly as to what they should do.
“As of now I don’t have the numbers but those not involved in any bad business were not shutdown. But I can confirm that some numbers have been shutdown. Within the week, customs will take a look at the records of each vehicle in these car marts and appropriate actions will be taken.’’
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