Customs raises alarm over another importation of toxic ‘ponmo’

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Seme Area Command, has raised an alarm on an alleged attempt by some people to bring into Nigeria many truck-loads of the hide and skin delicacy, widely known as ‘pomo’, which he declared is “toxic”. NCS officials expressed this concern yesterday in Lagos against the background of the arrest of […]

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Seme Area Command, has raised an alarm on an alleged attempt by some people to bring into Nigeria many truck-loads of the hide and skin delicacy, widely known as ‘pomo’, which he declared is “toxic”.

NCS officials expressed this concern yesterday in Lagos against the background of the arrest of a truck-load of ‘ponmo’ allegedly being smuggled into Nigeria from Benin Republic.

The agency said the driver of the truck had been arrested and was helping detectives in their effort to nab other members of the syndicate.

The NCS Area Controller, Seme Area Command, Mohammed Uba Garba, who raised the alarm yesterday while conducting journalists round the Customs warehouse at Seme to showcase some of the seizures made by the Command in the last one week, alleged that the importers had poured formaline, a harmful chemical, on the ‘ponmo’ as a preservative before transporting it into the country.

Garba, however, did not give the market value of the ‘ponmo’ that was intercepted.

“My men on patrol, at the weekend, acted on the strength of information from a credible source that a truck-load of cow skin, popularly called ‘ponmo’, suspected to be poisonous, was being transported into Nigeria. The team mobilised to the scene and recovered a huge pile of the poisonous ‘ponmo’ and the chemicals used in their preservation.

“One Scannia truck, registration number EKY 734 XN, which was used in conveying the goods, was also impounded. Officials the National Agency for Food Drug and Control (NAFDAC) were contacted and after due examination, the cow skin was confirmed to be poisonous and not fit for human consumption. Investigation is ongoing to ascertain the source and destinations of those poisonous food items, and suspects will be charged to court,” he said.

On May 5, 2019, the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command, Bala Elkana, had announced the arrest of six suspects allegedly in possession of a truckload of poisonous ‘ponmo’ heaped in a warehouse at No. 9, College Road, Igando, a Lagos suburb.

And on July 9, the Lagos State Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Olayiwole Onasanya, also said the state government had confiscated another truckload of a poisonous delicacy he described as “Ebola ponmo” at Ijegun, a suburb of Lagos, in the Alimosho local government area.

Onasanya said the item was imported into Nigeria by some “unscrupulous individuals”.