Economic hardship: Customs begins distribution of seized food items, warns against reselling
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has commenced the distribution of food items seized from smugglers.
Wale Adeniyi, comptroller-general of customs, disclosed this on Thursday during the flag-off of the exercise in Lagos state.
Adeniyi said the federal government has approved the distribution of the items to ameliorate the economic hardship in the country.
He said over 50 trucks of food items were confiscated by the service and are now being held at the area command of the NCS.
“Our target include artisans, teachers, religious organisations and other Nigerians within the area of customs operations, including the border areas,” NAN quoted Adeniyi as saying.
“The intention of this distribution is to reach out directly to members of organisations that have structures, to ensure the maximum impact of the exercise.
“The effort of the distribution is to ensure robust security protocol throughout the process as officers will closely monitor the entire supply chain to prevent any misuse or possible diversion of food items.
“We collaborate with other sister agencies of government, while customs is the lead agency because the food items are with us.
“Among us here are the police, DSS, and tomorrow we are going to have full department of all the sister organisations for proper monitoring.”
The comptroller-general said the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has approved the rice to be distributed.
He said the rice to be distributed has been repackaged to 25kg in order to reach more Nigerians.
Adeniyi said customs has seized over 20,000 bags of 50kg parboiled rice, beans, maize, millet and soy beans from smugglers.
He listed other food items intercepted as 2,500 cartons of 963 bags of assorted dried fish, dry pepper, seasoning, salt, cooking oil, macaroni, sugar and garri.
Adeniyi warned officials against reselling the food items, adding that anyone caught with the products in their stores would be arrested and prosecuted.
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