By ANDREW OJIEZEL
With 12 days to Christmas, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), has warned the country against expired rice being smuggling from Idiroko, Seme, Jibia and other border stations.
The Customs Controller, Federal Operations Unit (F.O.U.) Ikeja, Comptroller Mamudu Haruna, who disclosed this in Lagos, said the public should be very careful in patronising the smuggled commodity.
The controller said that those eating such smuggled rice were damaging their systems.
He said some of the expired rice had been impounded by officers and men of the service and kept in the warehouses.
The importation of rice through the border stations was banned in April 2017.
Haruna said smuggling of rice had become so rampant that youths risked their lives on motorcycles carrying five to six bags each.
He said that other devices used included transporting between 35 to 50 bags in smaller trucks.
Haruna said there was no way one could get a good rice consignment with the appropriate price from the smugglers, except the ones brought through the seaports.
The comptroller said, “for plastic rice, I am yet to come across the plastic rice.’’
To curb smuggling, he said that the service had intensified operations at various bonded terminals and warehouses to ensure compliance with the extant laws.
He stated that “To this end, about six warehouses in Lagos that have contravened the laws are under customs seal and pending a thorough investigation.”
The controller said that one of the sealed warehouses contained 23,000 bags of rice and 44,000 empty bags for re-bagging.
He also showed a detained cement company’s vehicle, (name withheld) containing both cement and rice but for smuggling rice.
Haruna said that between October and November, the unit intercepted various contraband with a Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N325.53million.
He said the unit also recovered N286.62million from duty payments and demand notices on vehicles and other general goods that tried to beat the system from seaports, airports and border stations.
“In the guise of false declaration, transfer of value and shortchange in duty payment that is meant for the Federal Government.”