The four male suspects and the wooden boat carrying the smuggled rice were seized during a routine patrol by Navy gunboats around the Effiat waterways.

The Commanding Officer, FOB, Capt. Peter Yilme who disclosed this to newsmen at the weekend during the hand-over of the suspects and items to the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), assured that Navy will not give the smugglers breathing space since they have failed to relent from their ways.

Yilme who was represented by the Base Operations Officer, Lieutenant Commander Kabiru Yusuf, maintained that Navy was committed to ensuring that the illegal trade is completely eradicated.

“On behalf of the Commanding Officer, I am handing over 220 bags of suspected smuggled rice to the Nigeria Customs Service,” he said.

While receiving the 4 suspects and 220 bags of rice from the Nigerian Navy, Deputy Superintendent of NCS, Alabi, Adedokun commended the Navy for the cooperation existing between them, and for the frequent arrests.

“On behalf of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), I Alabi Adedokun take over the 4 defendants and 220 bags of foreign parboiled rice. On behalf of the Nigeria Customs Service, we thank you very much”, he said.

One of the suspects, Godwin Nseyoh (29)  and native of Mbo Local Government Area simply said, “I am a fisherman in Effiat community, I didn’t know that bringing in rice from Cameroon is wrong,”