The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Ogun Area 1 Command, has intercepted 23 trailers conveying bags of foreign rice during its operations in the third quarter of the year.
The seized trailers included two Dangote trucks with the rice concealed in between bags of cement.
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The Area Controller, Bamidele Makinde, disclosed this while speaking on the achievements of the command at a press briefing at Idiroko, Ipokia LGA.
He said that findings revealed that the Dangote trucks were not owned by the Dangote Group, but were being operated by individuals who transported cement on franchise agreement with the group.
He explained that, “These people you see smuggling with trucks with Dangote imprinted on them are not real Dangote trucks. They are not owned by the company, but they operate under a franchise agreement.”
Makinde listed the command’s seizures for the quarter as 11,358 bags of foreign rice; with three more trucks loaded with 513 bags of smuggled rice intercepted at the Obada axis on Ibese-Itori Road in Yewa North LGA.
He further said, “In addition to the above, the command recorded seizures of 1,550 pieces of used tyres and 180 bales of used clothing in a warehouse along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“Details of other seizures and their values are 227 seizures comprising of 16 units of vehicles used as means of conveyance; two units of used vehicles (Tokunbo); 2,706 kegs (67,650 litres) of petrol and eight units of motorcycles (means of conveyance).”
He listed other impounded items to include 80 kegs of vegetable oil: 201 bales and 76 sacks of second-hand clothing and 89 bales of textile (wrapper), noting that the import duties and other revenues generated from the auction sales of the petrol was N38,5m.
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