Customs won the N1BN valuable goods in three months, increasing alarm over the smuggling of wildlife, reducing the Port of Calabar

Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Cross River/Calabar Free Trade Zone/Akwa Ibom Area Command, has announced the confiscation of goods with a paid value of import duty (DPV) exceeding N1.04 billion between March, June and July 2025.

Financial Supervisor Chukwudi Ogbonna, who revealed this in Calabar on Thursday, said that the seizure highlighted the scale of smuggling activities and urgent needs to overcome the challenges of infrastructure that resisted trade in the region.

Among the intercepted goods are 6,100 liters of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), narcotics, medicines, and four pangolin scale bags, which themselves carry a DPV more than N637 million.

Ogbonna further revealed the discoveries that were disturbing from illegal wildlife products, including 213 parrot heads, 29 packs of parrots, 128 heads of African horns, five eagles, one pack of eagle feathers, and the body parts of the chimpanzee.

According to him, the seizure was carried out during the routine luggage inspection on March 12 at the MFUN/Ekok joint border station, when officers stopped a traveler who entered Nigeria from Cameroon.

“On Wednesday, March 12, during the routine luggage inspection at the MFUN/Ekok joint border station, my officers intercepted a traveler who entered Nigeria from Cameroon. The individual was found in the ownership of 213 Beo Birds, 29 packs of disks, a poultry package, and five trimmed prune

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Financial supervisors emphasized that the seizure was a serious violation of international agreements.

“The confiscation underlines violations of international laws including the International Trade Convention in the endangered wild fauna and flora species, which is the signing of Nigeria. Part 55 of NCS ACT 2023 prohibits imports/exports/transit species that are endangered without permission.”

Ogbonna warns that illegal wildlife trade is more than just an environmental problem – triggers a criminal network and threatening national stability.

“Illegal wildlife trade not only damages Nigeria’s biodiversity but also triggers crime, economic stability, and public safety,” he said.

Four suspects connected to the seizure have been charged in court.

While praising the leadership of the comprecental-general of customs Bashir Adeniyi, as well as officials and stakeholders for their resilience, Ogbonna reiterated her commitment to aggressively fight smuggling in all forms.

However, financial supervisors also deplored the increasingly low income in the Port of Calabar, blaming him in the years of dredging that was ignored from the Calabar river channel and the sad situation of the Calabar-Jalan Raya.

“The Port of Calabar will receive between 50 to 100 ships every month, but non-destruction of river channels has limited about two to three ships every month. What I say is that the depth of the channel is Calabar and that Road, and that does not help the material because of the worse thing;

With a seizure worth more than one billion Naira in just three months, the command insisted that he would continue to tighten its border operations, even when they urged the government to immediately overcome the congestion of infrastructure that weakened the legitimate trade in the region.