Magudu

Adejoke Adeleye/Abeokuta

The Nigeria Custom Service, Ogun Area Command has pledged support for the state government on the production of Mission To Rebuild Ogun State(MITROS) Rice, thereby warning smugglers to desist from unlawful importation of rice into the state.

The Customs Comptroller, Sani Magudu who made this pledge during a press briefing held at the Custom headquarters in Abeokuta to roll out the seizures of the command during the festive period vowed to track down all smugglers in the state.

He stressed that, the command is working day and night to make sure smuggling activities are reduced to zero per cent in the state.

Comptroller Magudu, however, said the production of the MITROS Rice in the state would help in the reduction of food scarcity and high cost of rice in the country.

Meanwhile, Magudu promised to collaborate with state government to ensure success in the just launced MITROS Ofada Rice by Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

Smuggled items

Adding that “We are equally mindful of the recently launched rice by Ogun state government that is Ofada Rice, we have a letter from the Ministry of Agriculture, Ogun state and we are encouraging the manufacturing of this rice so as to facilitate the people’s policy.

“We are fully in support of it and we would give them all necessary support to sustain the rice production and make sure Ogun state rice succeeds.

Once it succeeds, it would help the nation, it is not Ogun state alone that would benefit from it,but the whole country would benefit”he said.

While disclosing the seizure made by the Command, Magudu said they have intercepted about 23 smuggled vehicles worth over N37 million from smugglers in both Idi-Iroko and Abeokuta Axis of the command.

He added that, the Command also seized about 391 bags of rice worth over N3 million and other smuggled goods like clothes, shoes, electronics, etc. worth over N6 million.

Smuggled items

He said, “We have a total of Duty paid value of over N62million, while we have seized about 391 bags of 50kg rice, we also intercepted about 23 cars from both the Abeokuta and Idi-Iroko Axis of the command. We are not sleeping, we are working 24/7 to make sure smuggling activities is a thing of the past in Ogun state. We would keep using new tactics to discover the new techniques used by smugglers.He vowed

“Ogun state is a no go area for smugglers, stay away from Ogun state. Don’t smuggle rice to Ogun state again because we already have our own rice produced in the state”, he warned.

Comptroller Magudu also stated that it is a great pleasure for him to commission the just completed 30-man rank building so as to help ginger NCS Ogun Command and as well to double their work in bringing smuggling to zero in Ogun and in the entire country.