Border Patrol Team seizes items worth N12.5bn

The Operation Swift Response (OSR), now Nigeria’s Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT) of the Nigerian Customs Service, has said seized items valued at N12.5 billion as of 5 January 2021.

This was disclosed by Mr. Joseph Attah, Public Relations Officer of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), in a statement in Abuja on Thursday.

The Customs PRO said, that the items that have been seized includes; 159,506.7-(50kg) bags of parboiled foreign rice, 10,447 bags of NPK fertilizer used for making explosives, 1,974 vehicles and 895 motorcycles. He also added that 18,690 Jerrycans of vegetable oil were also seized.

“In a renewed effort to combat smuggling, irregular migration and other transnational organised crimes along the nation’s border coupled with the gradual reopening of the borders, Operation SWIFT RESPONSE (OSR) has been transformed into Nigeria’s Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT),” he said.

“It is now part of a Tripartite Operation, comprising Benin, Niger and Nigeria. With the reopening of the borders for commercial activities, items such as parboiled rice, frozen chicken, illicit drugs, among others remain prohibited.”

Operation SWIFT RESPONSE, launched in August 2019 and coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to oversee the partial border closure, has now transformed into Nigeria’s Joint Border Patrol Team (JBPT), part of a Tripartite Operation comprising Benin, Niger, and Nigeria.