Anti-Smuggling: Customs to Donate 25,153 Bags of Seized Foreign Rice to IDPs
*Says rice good human consumption
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has concluded arrangements to donate 25,153 bags of rice seized from smugglers to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
The Controller, Federal Operations Unit, Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service, Comptroller Muhammed Aliyu, told news men last week that the Command was only awaiting a formal approval to donate the rice which is worth over N331million.
He explained that all the bags of rice are good for human consumption, adding that no poisonous rice is donated to the IDPs.
It would be recalled that the Comptroller General of Customs, Rtd General Hammed Ali had been involved in the campaign to discourage Nigerians from consuming foreign rice on the claim that they are not good for human consumption.
Aliyu however explained that not all rice smuggled into the country are bad for consumption.
According to Aliyu, the rice to be donated to the IDPs have already been tested okay by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
He told newsmen, “We take this rice to NAFDAC for testing before we give it to orphanage homes. If they say it is not good for human consumption, we won’t give it out but destroy. So we don’t give expired rice to IDPs. We sort out the most poisonous one while we give the good to the IDPs.”
The FOU also seized 140 bundles of textile materials with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N11.2million and 16 vehicles worth N470 million.
Among the vehicles seized was a bullet proof vehicle which DPV was put at N189 million.
Other items seized were 49 cartons of re-boiled paracetamol injection with DPV of N39.2m; 86 sacks of used shoes with DPV of N10.3m and 820 sacks of donkey skins with DPV of N78, 347 cartons of codeine syrup at N174mi; 1000 sachets of tramadol – N250,000 and Indian hemp estimated at N11m.
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