Amid speculations about the real status of the border, the Ogun Area 1 Command of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday confirmed the opening of Idiroko Border in the Ipokia local government area of the state for business transactions between Nigeria and other West African countries.
This camet as NCS also declared that it had put all necessary machinery in motion towards ensuring that Nigeria’s export trades through the Idiroko Border routes increased to the desired height.
The command’s area controller, Bamidele Makinde made these known on Tuesday while briefing journalists on activities of his command in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
Makinde said only the Idiroko Border route was approved for opening to business transactions across the West African trade routes out of the six routes that entered into Nigeria through Ogun State, while goods moving through the the five others routes will still remain illegal “for now”.
He reiterated that NCS’s mandate included trade facilitation and suppression of smuggling, disclosing that the anti – smuggling operatives of the command successfully intercepted a total number of 6, 924 bags of foreign parboiled rice, each weighing 50kg and equivalent to 11 trailer truck loads between the months of April and May, 2023 which have been evacuated into the Service’s central warehouse.
Giving a breakdown of the seizure made by his command between the period under review, the Area 1 controller said contrabands which included used tyres, Cannabis Sativa and other items prohibited by the law were intercepted by the anti- smuggling operatives of the command.