Customs seize N50m worth of rice, vegetable oil, sugar

The Kano/Jigawa Area Customs Command has intercepted over 2000 bags of foreign rice, 500 contraband kegs of vegetable oil and 1000 bags of sugar worth over N50 million
 Briefing newsmen at the Command’s headquarters on Thursday, the Customs Comptroller of the Command, Nasiru Ahmed said the operation was jointly carried out by Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Katsina state Command, Comptroller General of Customs Strike Force and Kano/Jigawa Command. According to him, the seizure was made within one week of intensive operation and raid by the joint team of the customs service.

 “What we are witnessing today is the seizures of 2000 rice, 500 kegs of vegetable and 1000 bags of sugar, valued at over N50 million, concealed in 17 J5 Peugeot buses. The big seizures were made along Katsina state axis. “You and I know what goes into a J5.

We have rice, we have sugar, and we have vegetable oil. Like I said, it is a joint assignment, including the Customs Intelligence Unit (CIU), Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Katsina state Command, Comptroller General of Customs Strike Force, Kano/Jigawa Command is what brought this success. “So, you can understand that if there is a team work, there is a better success. So far, no arrest has been made; we are still investigating the movement of the smugglers.”

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Ahmed, however, condemned the rising spate of smuggling through porous borders in the North, describing it as a recurring incident which has continued to sabotage the economy. He added that, “the sad part of it is that this is where government is spending money. The Federal Government has been spending huge amount of money on production of rice; and these are the same people again that are smuggling rice.

 “And apart from this, what we are seeing are bags of rice—do you know whether there other things inside the bags of rice, because arms and ammunitions can be concealed inside the bags of rice, tramadol can be hidden inside the bags of rice and sugar. We all know the dangers of tramadol to the youths and other hapless Nigerians today.

 “So, I advise these smugglers to desist from these unpatriotic and criminal activities because right now, we are very much ahead of them. We are going to start targeting the kingpins. “Our problem is no longer the people carrying the rice on transit, we will go after the kingpins, we will locate their warehouses where they are keeping these consignments and raid them. “We will surely go after them because this is disservice to the nation. This is a disservice to the northern region; they are killing business in the North.

 “Government cannot come and do all this simple things for us, government can only give us incentives. Government can only encourage us with loans which is available at five per cent. “All these things are in place and somebody is smuggling rice, somebody is smuggling sugar. They don’t want to patronize BUA and Dangote sugar; and these are people employing our youths in this country.

 Now, the question is this, must you take our hard-earned foreign currency to other countries, the answer is no! “This is the only country we have and we must make it work. And the only way we can make it work is that everybody must contribute his or her own quota to make the country great, and to support the current government.”