In a brazen show of audacity, die-hard importers have resumed rice smuggling through the seaports, the total ban on their importation notwithstanding.
More worrisome is that not only does the development breach the ban, it also denies the nation’s economy the would-be income, as no tariff can be legally placed on smuggled goods, while indicating a measure of official complicity.
Raising an alarm over the trend last weekend, Coordinator of the Controller-General of Customs (CGC) Strike Force, Zone ‘A’ of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), DC Mohammed Yusuf, disclosed that 4,000 bags of imported foreign parboiled rice were evacuated from a warehouse in Lagos.
Yusuf disclosed that the rice, which was offloaded into a two-storey building (warehouse) in an undisclosed are of Lagos, left an equally undisclosed seaport terminal, designated for a bonded terminal, but was diverted along the way to the warehouse.
Suspecting foul play when the containers did not arrive, the bonded terminal operators raise intelligence, which led to the tracing of the cargo to the warehouse, evacuation and sealing of the property.
Similarly, a container bearing assorted banned drugs, including tramadol and codeine, was diverted on transit from a seaport terminal to the ASPAMDA Market, but having been profiled ahead its arrival from India, it was traced to the market stall and retrieved, while investigations continue.
“When I came in, I said I have zero tolerance for sharp practices, and based on intelligence and with hardworking officers, we swung into action and intercepted these yellow-bagged foreign rice,” Yusuf said.
“Most of them were brought in by unscrupulous importers who operate in some bonded terminals without paying duties. This rice was intercepted based on intelligence; we went to the warehouse and brought the containers. Duties are not supposed to be paid and the containers will just find their way.
The warehouse was sealed. A (bonded) terminal operator expecting the containers and later discovered that they have been diverted gave us this intelligence and we discovered it and sealed the place off.
“The importer expected that the container was coming into his bonded terminal. We got to the warehouse and right inside, we saw rice stacked and they were evacuated.”
He regretted that though the government was doing its best to sustain production and gradually achieve self-sufficiency in local rice production, but due to citizens’ insatiable appetite for foreign goods, they have to import this.
“You will recall that when the rice thing started, it wasn’t as polished as it is now, but as the administration goes on, the quality has improved, even the packaging,” he noted.
“What we need is a little bit of time to get it right, but people won’t stop smuggling. But the more they do, we are there to get them.”
