Customs intercepts 600 bags of rice, docks 3 alleged smugglers
…vows sustained onslaught on smugglers
By Tobi Adetunji
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), 1 Ogun Area Command, has intercepted an articulated vehicle loaded with 600 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice.
The truck, with the inscription of Dangote Cement Company, used to conceal the contraband, was intercepted along the Ijoun border axis of Ogun State.
The Customs Area Controller, Peter Kolo, who disclosed this on Wednesday at the monthly press briefing on the activities of NCS, Ogun 1 Area Command, Idiroko, said the truck with its contents was heading to the eastern part of the country.
Kolo said three suspects, including the driver of the vehicle, were arrested, adding that an investigation was ongoing to unravel the people behind the massive smuggling activity.
The Controller disclosed that the command had in March intercepted a truck belonging to the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, used to smuggle contraband goods into the country.
On the seizure of the contraband goods made by the command in the month of April, Kolo said 7,000 bags of 50kg foreign parboiled rice, equivalent of 12 trailer loads, were seized.
While noting that smuggling of foreign rice was causing catastrophic damage to the federal government’s rice and agricultural policies.
The customs controller said various quantities of poultry products, Cannabis Sativa (marijuana), vehicles and other means of conveyance, used clothing and shoes, used tyres, sugar, tomatoes in retail form, body creams and petroleum products made for export, were also seized during the period under review.
According to him, the cumulative duty paid value for the seizures in April amounts to N189,923,293 million.
Kolo, who restated that the FG’s directive on border closure was still subsisting, said a sum of N225,000 was generated from the auction and sales of seized petroleum products and scrap metals, in the month of April.
He, however, declared that men and officers of the command would sustain the onslaught on the smugglers, despite severe attacks being meted out against customs operatives by the smugglers and their promoters.
