In continuation to halt smuggling of food items to fight hunger and address the food inflation, the Federal Government on Tuesday said it had so far intercepted over one hundred trucks attempting to smuggle grains and other staples to Niger Republic, Chad, Cameroon, and the Central African Republic.
The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adeniyi, said that the service had within two weeks arrested about one hundred and twenty trucks smuggling food items from Nigeria while the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission stopped twenty one food trucks from leaving the country on Tuesday.
While the Comptroller-General was disclosing the measures being enforced to ensure food security at the House of Representatives in Abuja on Tuesday, truck drivers, who have been targets of attacks by hoodlums, had threatened to declare a strike if the situation persisted.
Briefing the federal lawmakers on the enforcement of the Presidential directive to curtail food smuggling during the sectoral debate series, the Customs CG, Adeniyi, said President Bola Tinubu had given a directive that the arrested trucks be diverted to the local markets in the area where they were arrested to force down the prices of grains and other food items.
Adeniyi explained that the Customs were playing their part in ensuring that the problem of food security was addressed, adding that currently, most agriculture inputs attract zero duty and the value-added tax.
“We arrested in two weeks about 120 trucks of food items going out of the country. These are the food items Mr President has asked us to give back to the local markets where the arrests were made. We believe this will drive down the price of food items in these places,” he added.
According to him, “Mr President has directed that we sell directly to needy Nigerians food items produced locally but which were seized. This is one of the ways to address hunger and food scarcity we are facing. We have started this in Lagos.
“Also, the President has also directed that imported food items seized by the Nigeria Customs Service should be sold back to the local markets for resale to Nigerians”
Fielding questions from lawmakers during the session presided over by Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, Adeniyi gave reasons why the auction of seized grains was temporarily discontinued by the NCS.
“We started in Lagos but you know what happened. There was a stampede. No matter the number of bags of rice you share or sell, it will not be enough.
“We have to focus on one place at a time. We will use the lessons we learnt in Lagos to coordinate this programme when we resume,” he said.
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