Christmas Rush: Customs Raid Market, Seize Foreign Rice

Officers and men of the Adamawa/Taraba Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), on Friday raided Mubi town market for foreign rice and other contraband.

News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that the raid, led by the Comptroller, Kamardeen Olumoh, led to seizure of many bags of foreign rice and the arrest of three suspects.

The customs personnel, with reinforcement from the police, stormed the commercial border town main market around 11 a.m and raided many shops and stores.

Speaking on the development, the Command Comptroller said the raid was in compliance with a directive from the Comptroller-General of the service in Abuja.

“The menace of smuggling around this axis is alarming for quite some time, the Comptroller General of Customs ordered that operations be carried out; that Mubi market must be mopped up of all smuggled items, especially foreign rice.

“Today, we are in the market and we are able to evacuate large quantity of rice and this is a clear signal to smugglers.

“We are backed by the Law, Section 147 of Customs and Excise Management Act has given us the power to enter or search premises day or night, to break and enter, make arrest; in fact, without warrant and that is exactly what we did today,” Olumoh said.

There was, however, mixed reactions over the raid in Mubi.

While marketers were lamenting and condemning it as they count their loss, farmers were happy and commending the exercise as a positive step to boost local production of rice. 

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