By Richard Adeniyi
The Ogun Area 1 Command of the Nigeria Customs Service has intercepted 14,951 bags of foreign rice smuggled into the country from the neighbouring countries through the state within the first quarter of the year.
The Area Controller of the command, Michael Agbara, disclosed this on Friday while briefing the media about its activities.
Other items intercepted, according to him, were 293,015 litres of Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol being smuggled out of the country by those he described as economic saboteurs.
Within the period under review, he said it also seized 9,161 cartons of frozen poultry items.
Agbara said all the items seized within the first quarter had a duty payable value of N1.177bn.
While comparing the first quarter of 2020 with that of 2019, he said for the previous year, the command intercepted 12,720 bags of smuggled foreign parboiled rice and 13, 750 litres of petrol. All the items had a duty payable value of N438.9m.
He said, “The command’s special task force intercepted nine vehicles among them were seven sport utility vehicles, fully loaded with smuggled bags of rice. The smugglers had done this to navigate the difficult terrain in the bush, but the Customs operatives intercepted them.
“The proactive activities of the officers and men of the command led to the seizures of the various items.”
Agbara added that the command also made a seizure of 176 sacks, 1,790 parcels and 80 compressed book packs of Indian hemp, among others.