President Bola Tinubu has ordered the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to immediately release confiscated food items to their owners.
The food stuffs are to be returned to their owners for onward retailing in the Nigerian markets.
The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, told stakeholders in meeting on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at Kwangwalam, a border town in the Maiadua Local Government Area of Katsina State.
During food scarcity in the country, some Nigerians dealing on food stuff embarked on smuggling of produce in trailers to neighbouring countries to earn higher profits, which shut up the prices in the market. In a bid to check the increasing prices caused by smuggling, NCS had to step into the situation – exercising strict control at the border. Customs was able to intercept many of the smugglers and confiscate the food items.
However the President ordered the release of the food items and directed that they be sold at the local market, as a sign of his magnanimity and concern to the traders.
“The whole idea is to promote food security and ensure that Nigerians will not be living with hunger and Mr President considers this as one of the strategies that can help address the problem of food security.
“We have over 120 trucks of food items for export seized, which means a lot of food items were taken out of our markets, leading to the unavailability that created some pressure on the prices of these food items. So, we hope that by the time we restock our markets, it will have some positive effects on the prices,” he said.
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