Still on seizure of rice by Customs

The recent seizure of bags of rice and vegetable oil from some traders in Sango Ota area of Ogun State has been an issue of interest among Nigerians, with different people giving different reasons for supporting or condemning the act.

I don’t support smuggling in whatever form because I believe such is capable of ruining local initiatives. However, the manner in which the men of the NCS carried out the operations leaves much to be desired.

Yes, some people have been going around justifying the operation, claiming that the NCS Act empowers the customs’ operatives to break into any shop, house or store where suspected contrabands are stored or kept and confiscate such in the name of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

Without sounding immodest and appearing to be supporting smugglers and smuggling activities in the country, it is obvious that the action of the customs officers was nothing but medicine after death. We need to ask ourselves the question, how do these smugglers manage to beat the several checkpoints manned by the men of the Customs Service?

The answer is not farfetched. We are all living witnesses to the shenanigans of these men who are alleged to brazenly collect bribes, look the other way, and allow the smugglers to pass through even in broad daylight. Instead of preventing smuggling, the customs’ men have allegedly been busy enriching themselves with money obtained from smugglers, thereby depriving the federal, state and local governments of the much-needed revenue.

The NCS, therefore, needs to clean its house, rather than carrying out Gestapo-like raids on helpless traders, most of whom obtained loans to buy their goods. It should take necessary steps to flush out the bad eggs in the force.

One thing is clear: the unfortunate traders are not smugglers, so why should they be made scapegoats for the negligence and/or deliberate acts of sabotage by the customs?

We all know that the times are hard, so the raid amounts to double jeopardy for the helpless traders who may go into bankruptcy.

Adeojo Samuel.  Abeokuta, Ogun State.