The Nigerian Customs Service, Kano/Jigawa command has impounded 250 bags of foreign rice worth over N5.5m of duty paid value that was concealed in a fuel tanker along Daura-Kano road.
Displaying the seized tanker and bags of rice before newsmen, the controller of the command, Comptroller Nasir Ahmed, said the new method of concealing goods by smugglers was new and challenging.
“What we saw today is a little bit new, something that is challenging to our thinking. If somebody can load rice in a compartment that is supposed to be containing diesel, petrol or kerosene, then we should assume that they can conceal anything in the tank.
“It can contain Tramadol, it can contain arms and ammunition or any other prohibited goods, and they loaded it in such a way that it will be very difficult to detect. But through intelligence and diligence of our men, they were able to perceive it,” he said.
Ahmed added that keeping rice or any other consumable in such condition has some serious health implications in addition to the security threats the new method of smuggling was posing to the nation.
