Customs Confiscates 11 Vehicles of Smuggled Rice
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Zone ‘B’ said it has confiscated 11 vehicles carrying bags of foreign rice along Kaduna, Zaria and Kano axis.
The Assistant Controller and Commander Strike Force of the Command, Ekanem Wills who spoke to journalist in Kaduna on Monday said information about the smuggled goods was gotten from patriotic Nigerians.
“We were able to confiscate eight Golf wagons and three J5 vehicles, all carrying rice.
“The smugglers have now devised a new means of using smaller tinted vehicles to convey the smuggled goods,” he said.
The Assistant Controller further explained that each of the eight golf wagons carried between 40 to 45 bags of rice.
“Two suspects were apprehended, and investigation is ongoing to ascertain the culprits behind the recurring rice smuggle which the Federal Government has placed ban on,” Wills said.
He said government has provided the command with new vehicles for patrol to enhance the capacity of the personnel in the efforts to end smuggling.
The official assured that the command was determined to seize all goods being smuggled into the country through its area of operation and warned smugglers to find new legitimate means of livelihood.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Customs Service and the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to stop rice smuggling through land border into the country. Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, President Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), disclosed this on Wednesday in an interview with the Newsmen in Abuja. He said even though the importation of rice through the land borders was banned since April 2016 with an extension to the restriction of rice into the Nigerian market from the Export Processing Zones (EPZ), yet smugglers still engaged in the unwholesome act. Goronyo warned Nigerians against the consumption of foreign rice, saying that most of the imported rice is stale and only meant for animal and fish feeds. He said result of test by NAFDAC through some samples of some of the rice seizures had ascertained that smuggled rice through the land borders was unfit for human consumption. “99 per cent of rice smuggled through the land borders are not fit for human consumption,” he said. Goronyo said that the Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali (rtd), reiterated recently at a joint meeting with RIFAN and Customs that rice importation remain banned through the land borders. The RIFAN President said to ensure effective monitoring of the land borders, the Comptroller-General has approved a 12-man implementation committee to be headed by Assistant Comptroller-General, Alino Dangaladima. He said Customs promised to continue to ensure the restriction of rice import through the land borders to boost local production.