Border Task Force Seizes 6000 Bags of Imported Rice
…as CCC concludes PR training for Navy, Customs
The Joint border patrol team set up by the federal government has seized over six thousand(6000) bags of imported rice courtesy of raids embarked upon in the last two weeks of  its operation.
The focal spokesperson of the task force who also doubles as the Nigeria Custom Service(NCS) mouthpiece, Mr Joseph Attah told Economic Confidential exclusively in Abuja on the sidelines of the just concluded three day training workshop on “Public Relations ,Protocol and Crisis Management for the personnel of both the Nigerian Navy(NN) and the Nigerian Custom Service.
The Workshop was organized by the Centre for Crisis Communication (CCC) in collaboration with Customs and the Navy.
Mr Attah said that the raid which was carried out simultaneously across the length and breadth of the country saw jibiya in Katsina state with the largest scale of seizures, adding that the development was in furtherance to the ongoing partial closure of borders across the country to curb the activities of rice smugglers.
He said that the activities of the joint patrol team, comprising personnel of the Customs, Army, Police, Immigration and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, had significantly smashed night smuggling, which usually boom whenever borders are closed.
Attah also revealed that the activities of the operation termed “Exercise Swift Response” (ESW) had made the smuggling business to nosedive, causing smugglers across the country to groan.
According to him, the exercise is being coordinated by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).
Attah further said the operation coupled with the tight patrol has rendered smugglers almost impotent, as they experience difficulties in moving goods through smuggling routes around the borders in Seme (Lagos State); Idiroko (Ogun State); Saki, (Oyo State); Illela-Koni (Sokoto State); and Jibiya (Katsina State).
The Federal Government had last month ordered the partial closure of the borders to prevent smuggling from neighbouring Benin, Niger and Chad republics.

Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of CCC, Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (rtd), has congratulated participants at the just concluded workshop for public relations and information officers of the Nigerian Navy and the Nigeria Customs Service for their steadfastness during the training and enjoined them to diligently imbibe the culture of public Relations practitioner in their various organizations.
He said the center for Crisis Communication was set up to facilitate a unified information sharing process and procedures with strategic stakeholders in public relations and crisis management.
“The three-day event is therefore another important occasion of bench-marking exclusive training and capacity-building initiative for officers of the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Custom Service,” he added.