The Nigeria Customs Service on Monday expressed its determination to stem the tide of rice smuggling with the delivery of 50 Toyota Hilux patrol vehicles to it.
Out of the 50 patrol vehicles, 20 were issued on Monday to the strike force team of the service.
Speaking during the event at the headquarters of the NCS, the Deputy Comptroller-General of Customs, Enforcement, Investigation and Inspection, Aminu Dangaladima, said that apart from the 50 vehicles already supplied, approval had been given by the Federal Government for another 68.
These, according to him, are in addition to 70 patrol vehicles being purchased for the joint rice task force.
He said with the delivery of the vehicles, the service would do all that would be required to ensure the actualisation of the Federal Government’s agricultural policy for national food sufficiency by checking rice smuggling.
Dangaladima said, “This unprecedented approval, making a total of 198 patrol vehicles in record time by the Federal Government, is the needed motivation to go all out and win the war against smugglers.
“For the avoidance of doubt, compliant traders have nothing to fear as our offensive will only be targeted at unpatriotic and non-compliant trans-border traders.”
He appealed to members of the border communities to support the service by providing useful information that would help to stop the activities of smugglers.
The National Coordinator, Strike Force Team, NCS, Assistant-Comptroller Kolade Kayode, said the release of the patrol vehicles to the team would go a long way in checking the activities of rice smugglers.
He said that the team would do all it could to ensure that the agricultural policy of the Federal Government was not compromised by smugglers.
Kayode assured the customs management that with the release of the vehicles, the menace of smuggling would be seriously addressed.