Ahead of the Christmas celebration, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS)’s Federal Operations Unit, Zone A has said it seized 4,010 bags of 50 kilogrammes of rice in the South-West borders within one day.

The NCS Area Controller, Comptroller Kola Oladeji, disclosed this in Lagos, saying that his officers had been tracking the contraband before finally intercepting it late on Monday.

According to him, in the singular operation, the unit intercepted nine lorries, six buses and 11 other vehicles carrying bags of rice.

Oladeji explained: “These are just the activities of the last 24 hours, during which we recorded these seizures. It is affecting our economy. It is affecting the stability of the naira to the dollar. We have local production of rice.

“Smugglers don’t pay taxes. They don’t pay anything, and all these prohibited items are not meant for this country. This is not a detailed press briefing.

“As you are aware, we have just arrived here with some of these seized bags of foreign parboiled rice. We succeeded in intercepting them at border areas in the South West region at large.” Oladeji noted that because of the vast land borders the country shares with the Benin Republic, some of the smuggled items do enter through bush paths.

He praised the Nigerian Army for always assisting the service when needed.

Speaking about the arrests, he said that the smugglers abandoned the items and the vehicles upon seeing the officers.

He explained: “These vehicles were abandoned. Immediately we sighted them, they knew the game was up, so they had no choice but to run away with their car keys, and most of the vehicles were specially built. You may not be able to drive them unless they are the ones.”