The Nigerian Customs Service has disclosed that officers and men of the services impounded 33 containers of expired and spoiled rice imported from Thailand and China respectively.
Addressing news men on Tuesday, the Comptroller General of Nigerian Customs Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd) who made this known stated that alongside the expired containers rice, 11 containers of unregistered pharmaceutical products, two containers of used tires, four containers of refined vegetable oil in retail packs were also seized at the Tin-Can Island ports by officers and men of the Command.
Putting the duty paid value of the impounded containers to N2.7 billion, Hameed Ali disclosed that the seizures were as a result of the partial border closure.
He said the seized 54 containers contravened the provisions of Customs & Excise Management Act Cap C45 LFN 2004 Section 46 and 161.
According to the CGC, the unpleasant thing about the seizure is that all the rice are expired or about to expire.
It will be recalled that the service in the past raised alarm and drew attention of the general public to the fact that most of the imported rice is expired.
Some of the rice allegedly imported from overseas had Nigerian addresses, and the Service according to Ali, will be going after these addresses to investigate their connections to the importation of these expired rice.
Some of the addresses include Masters Energy Commodities Trading Limited located at 31A, Remi Fani-Kayode Street, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos and 103, Ebittu Ukiwe Street, Jabi, Abuja.
“We will be going after these addresses and investigating their connections with these expired bags of rice in 33 containers.
“I want to commend officers and men of the Tin-Can Island Port Command of the NCS for a job well done. I am also aware of the Commands contribution to the Service revenue collection drive. Statistics in my office shows the command has so far collected N286,742,551,443.00 from January 2019 till date. I, therefore, urge the Command to keep up the good work and possibly surpass its target.” Ali quipped.
