The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Kano/Jigawa Area Command, has intercepted $265,000 in undeclared foreign currency, alongside unregistered pharmaceutical products and suspected counterfeit packaging materials at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano.
The Acting Area Controller of the Command, Deputy Comptroller Usman Umar Adamu, disclosed this Monday during a press briefing, saying the foreign currency was intercepted on September 26, 2026, during routine screening of passengers arriving at the airport.
According to him, a Nigerian male passenger who arrived from New Delhi aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET941 was subjected to baggage screening using Non-Intrusive Inspection Technology, after which his luggage was flagged for secondary examination and a physical search subsequently uncovered the $265,000 concealed among his personal belongings.
Adamu said the Command had, from January to date, intercepted undeclared foreign currency and other negotiable instruments worth more than N2.5 billion in naira equivalent. He warned that moving foreign currency above the approved threshold without declaration contravenes relevant provisions of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 and the NCS Act 2023.
The suspect was handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Kano Zonal Directorate, for further investigation in line with Section 4(f) of the NCS Act 2023.
In a separate interception at the airport, the Command also seized 2,143 sachets of medicaments, 1,423 packs of empty medicament packaging materials and 10,056 cartons of empty pesticide packaging materials of different brands.
The items were jointly examined with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and were confirmed to be unregistered, while no evidence was found to establish that the packaging materials originated from the original manufacturers.
The pharmaceutical products and packaging materials were handed over to the NAFDAC Ports Inspection Directorate, Kano, for necessary actions as the seizures were part of efforts to protect public health and prevent the circulation of dangerous and unregistered products.
In the same vein, the Kano/Jigawa Customs displayed over three thousand cartons of intercepted herbicide under the name; “Para Best” which contains a prohibited chemical known as ‘Paracot’.
Adamu commended the Comptroller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, and the Service’s management for supporting the Command with modern scanning technology and capacity-building initiatives.
The Zonal Director of the EFCC, Mr. Friday S. Ebelo said the handover is yet another testament of their collective commitment to clean and sensitize the financial ecosystem describing the arrest as an example of a meaningful inter-agency collaboration between the Customs and EFCC.
Also, the Ass. Director, NAFDAC Ports Inspection Directorate, Kano, Mr. Azik Musa Kanadi stated that, “for every interception that is made of either products suspected to be substandard or falsified medical products or other counterfeit regulated product, there is a story. A story of regulatory officers who choose integrity over compromise. A story of interagency collaboration, intelligence sharing, and collective vigilance.
A story of how legitimate trade is protected, regulatory confidence is strengthened, and Nigerians standing in the global health community is sustained. Most importantly for substandard and falsified medicine is the story of a patient somewhere whose health have been protected and of confidence strengthened in our healthcare system”.
Kanadi, applauded the Customs for the synergy and call on stakeholders and the general public to raise their voices against the importation, distribution and use of substandard and falsified medical products and all other regulated products.