Customs Seize Rice Smuggled Inside Motorcycles Petrol Tanks
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone A, Ikeja, has announced that it intercepted foreign parboiled rice smuggled into the country through the fuel tanks of motorcycles (also known as Okada).
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos, the Customs Area Comptroller, Muhammed Aliyu, said the unit intercepted the bikes at a forest in Ogun State, revealing that motorcycle tank could contain half bags of rice.
According to him, a makeshift tank was created to fuel the motorcycle while the original fuel tank contained foreign rice.
According to him, “Motorcycle tanks is what they are using to smuggle rice, they create another space where they can fuel the bike. Who will believe smugglers can go to this length to use the tank as bunker to smuggle rice.
“This is a new method of smuggling rice; this is the few we can show you but by the time we bring the remaining bikes from the Bush you will all be amazed. One tank is half bag of rice so two tanks is one bag of rice so 50 tanks will produce 25 bags of rice. That is the level smugglers can go to smuggle rice into the country.”
Speaking further, the CAC said the service further intercepted 5717 jerry cans of vegetable oil smuggled into the country. He said the vegetable oil were intercepted at a warehouse in Lagos after they were successfully smuggled through the border into the country.
The CAC also disclosed that contraband seized between August to October 20, 2019 had a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N315million while N104.4million revenue was collected between August and September 2019.
He said: “5,200 bags of foreign parboiled rice with DPV of N68.4million were seized, 5717 kegs of vegetable oil valued at N61.4million, 339 cartons of pharmaceutical without registration number from the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), 115 bags of used bags and shoes worth N4.6million. Others are: 2,562 bales of used cloths worth N128.1million and 2,204 cartons of frozen poultry products worth N22million.”
