Nigeria Customs Service has impounded two cows for aiding and abetting smuggling activities along Maigatari border town, in Jigawa state.
The customs area controller, Nazir Ahmed, said the arrest of the animals followed intelligence report on a new method of smuggling bags of rice through the bush paths.
Ahmed estimated that several trips of the cows equal a trailer load of rice, which represented a huge and devastating harm to the country’s economy.
Kano/Jigawa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has expressed concern over a new method adopted by smugglers by using cows to smuggle contraband foreign rice into the country through porous borders.
It was reported that customs area controller, Alhaji Nazir Ahmed, made this known on Monday, November 26, during a media briefing on the activities of the area command.
Ahmed while parading the animals carrying tones of rice at the Bompai premises of the command, said the arrest of the animals followed intelligence report on a new method of smuggling bags of rice through the bush paths.
The custom’s boss said one of factors encouraging the use of cows for the illegality is the fact that cows could successfully pass through routes and paths that vehicles and motorcycles dare not pass.
According to him, “The cows also look innocent; you would think they are carrying the farm produce of one innocent farmer, not knowing they are conveying contraband from outside into Nigeria.”
He estimated that several trips of the cows equal a trailer load of rice, which represented a huge and devastating harm to the country’s economy.
The customs boss also regretted that youths of Babaura town, a border town in Jigawa state, have resorted to the ugly habit of aiding and abetting smuggling activities by use of their motorcycles to ferry in the bags of rice across the borders.
He appealed to members of the traditional institution to counsel their youths to desist from smuggling, and warned that the service will not entertain any request to drop the charge once they are arrested.
The area controller said in the last one month, they have impounded a total of 3,079 bags of rice, 770 cartons of foreign spaghetti, 17 bales of second hand clothing, 40 bags of foreign sugar and 101 jerry cans of foreign vegetable oil.
The command’s spokesperson, Saidu Abdullahi, made the disclosure in a statement released in Lagos on Wednesday, June 20.
Abdullahi said the destruction was supervised by the director general of National Agency for Food and Dru.gs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mojisola Adeyeye and the Area Controller, Mohammed Aliyu.
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