Senate on Thursday expanded its panel currently investigating alleged N30 trillion revenue leakage in the Nigeria Customs Service following revelation of more leakages.

This followed a “Point of Order’’ raised by the Chairman, Committee on Customs Excise and Tariff, Sen. Hope Uzodinma, at plenary.

The chamber also mandated the Committee on Marine Transport to collaborate with the committee on Customs, in the probe in view of more revelations emanating from the exercise.

Uzodinma, who was made chairman of the joint committee, cited Order 42 and Order 52, and said that the committee discovered more startling discoveries beyond the N30 trillion currently being investigated.

According to him, the committee requires more hands in the investigation as it discovered that beyond foreign exchange fraud, more trillions of Naira was lost to shady deals by some Asian companies.

While lamenting the level of decay in the system, Uzodinma added that the fraudulent activities were carried out through various infractions, including incorrect classification, undervaluation, under-declaration and incorrect origin.

He stressed that the money being lost through the infractions was more than what the country was getting from crude oil, lamenting that nothing serious was being done about it.

The lawmaker, who said the investigation panel would explore all available data on the matter, added that it would bring it to a logical conclusion to save the country from losing money that should have been used for development.

In his remarks, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary, said the senate ought to be commended for blowing whistle into the fraud in the Customs Service.

He expressed concern that while Nigeria was seeking loans from foreign organisations, it was losing trillions of Naira that would have been used for developmental purposes.

He commended the committee for a job well-done and urged it to expedite action on the investigation, adding that recovering such money would enable the country to implement the 2017 budget effectively.