By Udeme Clement

Nigerians have been warned against the danger of consuming expired rice and alcoholic drinks smuggled into the area through the land borders.

The Customs Area Controller (CAC), Oyo/Osun Command, Comptroller Tope Ogunkua, gave the warning, disclosed that his Command, through a tip-off intercepted 20 foot trucks loaded with expired rice and alcoholic drinks.

He said, “The Command also intercepted 25 fairly used vehicles laden with imported foreign rice and numerous general goods concealed with yam flour by smugglers to escape security checks.

Some of the seized items seen in the Command included a bullet proof Toyota land cruiser jeep, a 40 foot truck loaded with different goods estimated at the Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N2.3 million, over six long trucks loaded with various goods and used tyres.

Other seizures were 226 bags of Cannabis Sativa, 65 fairly used vehicles with DPV of over N72.3 million and cartons of poultry products with DPV of N548.262.00 among other prohibited items.”

“We work in collaboration with other security agencies in Oyo. We meet regularly with these agencies to map out new strategies on how to curb illegal trades in the region,” he said.

For instance, we realised about N7.2 billiion in the first half of 2016, a total of 119 seizures with DPV of N240.3 million. Also, about 948 vehicles paid duty to an estimated monetary value of N156.2 million within the same period. We are still re-strategising on various diversifications in intelligence gathering on anti-smuggling especially in volatile border areas, which will enable the Command to consistently build on revenue and anti-smuggling feats”, he added.