The Murtala Muhammed Airport Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has intercepted items suspected to be dried shark fins and dried donkey genitals worth N1.22 billion at the Lagos airport.
The command’s Area Controller, Comptroller Muhammed Yusuf, said this in a news conference in Lagos on Thursday.
He noted that the suspect intercepted for the shark fins was a Nigerian and the item was heading to China while that of donkey genitals was a Chinese heading to Hong Kong.
According to him, the six packages of suspected dried shark fins has a Free on Board (FOB) value of N221.9 million, while the 25 packages of donkey genitals has an FOB value of N1.01 billion, both totalling N1.22 billion.
“These items were seized mainly because of various forms of infractions on export guidelines and failure to comply with CITES Law on endangered species as enshrined in the Nigeria Customs Service Act.
“From the number of fins we have here, the implication is that we have over a thousand sharks that have been endangered. We cannot go on with this illegal trade because at the end of the day, it will be problem for us.
“Animals in the sea have a role they play, endangering them will affect the ecosystem and for us officers at the NCS, we will always make sure that these items under export prohibition list cannot go out,” he said.
