The Nigeria Customs Service has seized expired meals gadgets, unregistered medicines, and restricted safety gear value over N921 billion on the Apapa Port in Lagos.
The Comptroller-Basic of Customs, Adewale Adeniyi, revealed this throughout a press briefing on the Apapa Command.
He mentioned the seizures have been made between January and April 2025 in 11 completely different operations. These included 5 40-foot containers, two 20-foot containers, and 4 different seizures involving smuggled items hidden in uncommon methods.
Adeniyi raised alarm over the rising variety of unlawful pharmaceutical merchandise and restricted gadgets like drones getting into the nation. He warned that these pose critical threats to nationwide safety and public well being.
“Among the many seized gadgets have been unregistered medicines missing obligatory certification from the Nationwide Company for Meals and Drug Administration and Management (NAFDAC), expired margarine merchandise, and restricted safety devices together with drones and telecommunication gadgets with out end-user certificates from the Workplace of the Nationwide Safety Adviser,” he mentioned.
Among the many seizures have been 89 cartons of unregistered pharmaceutical merchandise in container CAAU6514500, 242 cartons in container TCNU6880130, and 1,001 cartons of hydra-sildenafil citrate tablets in container MRSU3041714. One other 40-foot container carried 1,400 packages of varied unregistered medication, whereas a fifth had 805 wrongly declared packages labelled as beauty powder.
Two 20-foot containers, GCNU1367992 and GCNU1372704, have been discovered with expired margarine. From container MSKU9329923, customs recovered 60 models of warrior drones valued at N15.9 million. One other container marked CFAX3 held 53 helicopter drones value N2.1 million. Ten walkie-talkies have been seized from ENL, and container SUDU1408819 had 500 packages of uncertified energetic medication tablets.
Adeniyi defined that the seizures uncovered 5 worrying smuggling patterns. First, the rising importation of sexual enhancement medication, with 5 of the 11 containers containing variations of sildenafil citrate. Second, many medication have been mislabelled as cosmetics to keep away from detection. Third, some containers held combined gadgets like expired meals, prescription drugs, and safety gadgets, suggesting coordinated efforts by prison networks. Fourth, some shipments got here from nations with weak export controls, and fifth, there was an increase in importing restricted safety devices like drones and communication instruments.
He warned concerning the well being dangers of utilizing sexual enhancement medication with out medical recommendation. “The indiscriminate use of those medication with out medical supervision might result in critical well being issues, together with cardiovascular dangers,” he mentioned.
Adeniyi additionally spoke concerning the rollout of Customs’ new digital platform, B’Odogwu, at PTML and Tin Can Island ports. He mentioned his earlier go to was to know the challenges customers have been going through.
“We’re not pretending that once we roll out a really critical mission of that magnitude that there can be no itches,” he mentioned.
He promised that Customs would proceed working with stakeholders and {financial} establishments to resolve points within the new system.
He added that these current interceptions are a part of an even bigger operation. Within the first quarter of 2025 alone, Customs recorded 22 drug-related seizures value N730 billion, a 34.6 % enhance from the identical interval in 2024.
Adeniyi praised the Apapa Command for his or her professionalism and urged all importers and exporters to observe authorized procedures. He additionally introduced that the world across the seized pharmaceutical containers could be restricted for security causes.