Customs seizes smuggled rice, trucks worth N101.7m in Edo

THE Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has impounded about 1,160 bags of 50kg of foreign parboiled rice and five trucks used to convey them, in Edo.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the rice and trucks worth N101.7 million were seized by the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC) Strike Force in zone “C”.

Zone “C” comprises Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi.

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At a media briefing in Benin on Tuesday, Mr Abdullahi Kirawa, the National Coordinator of the Strike Force, said that the seizure was achieved through intelligence reports from members of the public and Customs intelligence unit.

Kirawa said that the seized bags of rice were concealed in five trucks.

He said that the smuggling showed the level of desperation of perpetrators.

“The NCS will not relent in ensuring that activities of smugglers are nipped in the bud,” the official said.

He said that smugglers had introduced new ways of smuggling rice into the country, listing the ways to include concealing bags of rice in fuel tankers and GP tanks.

Kirawa appealed to members of the public to see smuggling as an evil wind that would blow no good.

He urged members of the public to help to expose smugglers.