Nigerians have been advised to desist from patronizing rice smuggled through land borders as most of the products are not fit for human consumption.
The Comptroller-General of Customs, retired Col Hameed Ali gave the advice at a joint news conference on illegal rice importation to Nigeria on Tuesday. He said samples of the rice seizures made over a period were referred to NAFDAC to ascertain their condition, and were certified unfit for human consumption.
Ali said that during his recent trip to Benin Republic to engage with colleagues in customs on effective management of the borders, some delegations from groups came giving commitments to pay all charges applicable if customs relaxed the policy on borders.
According to him, there has been a significant increase in seizures in the first three quarter of 2016.He said 117,034 (50kg) bags of rice seizures had been made at a duty paid value of N774.2 million.
The Customs boss stated that customs seizures had revealed several ingenious but devilish ways of smuggling into country what Nigerians consumed as food.“We have seen rice conveyed in open wooden canoes across our creeks and water ways with generous amount of dirty waters splashing on them.”
“The concealed rice is thereafter re-bagged half cooked and presented in our markets for sale as imported rice. “Bags of rice meant for Nigerians’ consumption (are) being conveyed in coffins inside make shift ambulance vehicles.”
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He said rice being a perishable product, lose valuable shelve life in non-conductive strong conditions.“We have strong evidence linking some reputable importers to cases of re-bagging expired rice to prolong their shelve life,’’ he added.
He said that customs was inundated with periodic intelligence about ship loads of parboiled rice that offloaded regularly in the neighbouring port of Cotonou.
Ali added that Benin Republic did not eat parboiled rice, adding that the imports were ultimately destined for Nigeria by smuggling through the land borders
He said that with the support of patriotic Nigerians, “we will not only achieve national self-sufficiency of rice in 2017 but be in pole position to clamp a total ban on its importation in the years ahead”.
He said that promoters of the economic subterfuge were seeking a re-introduction of quota system to import 1.5 million tonnes through the entry point. Ali said that many state governments had injected massive investments in local production of rice.