Following the sealing of three bonded terminals over various trade infractions, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has announced a ban on the examination of pharmaceutical cargoes in such facilities. Clearance procedures for these cargoes have now been restricted to only four designated Customs commands.

Speaking during the handover of 25 containers of unregistered pharmaceutical and breast enlargement products seized by the Apapa Customs Command, Comptroller-General of Customs, Mr. Adewale Adeniyi, stated that under the revised policy, only the Apapa Customs Command, Port and Terminal Multi-purpose Limited (PTML), Lagos International Airport, and the One Port In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, are authorized to handle the examination of pharmaceutical cargoes.

Adeniyi warned transport companies, haulage operators, bonded terminal owners, and other trade facilitators that any complicity in smuggling or regulatory breaches will result in severe consequences, including the revocation of operating licenses.

Adeniyi also disclosed that the service recovered N1.5 billion and N500 million from infractions tied to bonded terminals.

He credited this success to NCS’s upgraded intelligence network and technology, which now enables effective detection of concealed or fraudulently documented items.

Adewale explained that to ensure close scrutiny of the import of these regulated products, the Customs initially designated Apapa port, Onne port and the Airport command as the only entry points for these products.

He, however, said the PTML command has been lately added to the list of entry points.

The Customs boss further warned that no other port is allowed to take reception of pharmaceutical products due to their sensitive nature.

He said: ”This kind of inter-agency collaboration and intelligence sharing has been central to our enforcement strategy.

”The agreement framework, the MOU framework, enables NAFDAC to conduct coordinated operations and joint investigations, systematically tracing illicit pharmaceutical sources and deploy targeted enforcement strategies against the criminal networks behind them.

”Today, we will formally hand over to NAFDAC a total of 25 containers laden with counterfeit medications, unregistered pharmaceutical products and prohibited substances, including preparations that pose imminent danger to public life.

“These seizures, with a combined aggregate duty paid value of 9,235,402,973 Naira, represent a sophisticated network of criminal enterprises that deliberately exploit regulatory gaps to compromise our national security.

“A detailed breakdown of these seizures reveals disturbing patterns of misdeclaration and systematic attempts to circumvent established import protocols.

“The containers comprise 21 40-foot containers and four 20-foot containers containing predominantly unregistered pharmaceutical products, including sexual enhancement drugs such as Rexone and Hydra products, codeine-containing cough syrups, including CSE brands, antibiotic injections like oxytetrazolamine and apnesumate, pain relief medications containing diethyl medications such as paracetamol, skin-lightening creams marketed as all-purpose, nopollutionist, key-chemicals, hemolysis and breast-enlightenment products.

”These seizures include expired food products such as margarine and chocolate, pain relief medications including albedozol, bonus piglets, anti-malarial drugs like atepam, atequic, and consumer goods such as Sena soups, all of which reflect a sophisticated and diversified contraband portfolio that poses significant threats to public health, consumer safety, and regulatory integrity.

“The strategy we have developed with NAFDAC reflects strategic collaboration at its finest, with the Director-General of NAFDAC providing us critical intelligence, sometimes at midnight, about suspicious importation, intelligence that has proven decisive to our anti-smuggling operations.

“The coordination we are talking about, which has been facilitated by our MOU, enables swift responses to emerging threats.” (Vanguard)