Smuggled rice hits N597billion in 8 months – Customs

The value of rice smuggled in the last eight months is N597.7bn, according to the Nigeria Customs Service.

The Public Relations Officer of the service, Mr Wale Adeniyi, made the disclosure on Tuesday during an interview in Abuja.

He said the commodity was seized between January and August 2016.

According to Adeniyi the service was only able to seize smuggled rice valued at N330.5bn during the same period in 2015.

He said the service was able to achieve the seizure due to its partnership with custom officials from neighbouring country, the Republic of Benin.

“Our seizure on rice from January to August was N597.7 billion as against N330.5 billion during the same period in 2015; this shows a huge increase.

“The number of seizures from the statistics shows that smugglers now know that it is no longer profitable to bring in rice through the borders.

“So, since importation of rice is now restricted to the ports as even smugglers with one bag of rice are arrested.

“We have a number of arrests, particularly those using motorcycles, donkeys and even small vehicles.

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