President Bola Tinubu has directed the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to return all seized food items to their owners for onward retailing in the Nigerian markets.
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The Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, disclosed this during a meeting with stakeholders at Kwangwalam, a border town in the Maiadua Local Government Area of Katsina State on Saturday, March 9, 2024.
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In the wake of the food crisis and the rising cost of living that rocked the country, some Nigerians decided to smuggle out food produce in trailers to neighbouring countries to earn higher profits.
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However, Customs was able to intercept many of the smugglers and confiscate the food items.
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To promote food security and ensure that Nigerians don't go to bed on empty stomachs, Tinubu has now ordered the return of the seized food items to owners.
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According to Adeniyi, the decision was the President’s magnanimous gesture to ensure that Nigerians have enough food to buy at affordable prices from the markets.
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“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.
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“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.
