The Customs Controller of the Federal Operations Unit, Ikeja, Comptroller Mamudu Haruna, said on Tuesday said that most rice smuggled through Idiroko, Seme, Jibia and other border stations had expired.
Haruna, who disclosed this in Lagos, said the public should be very careful in patronising the smuggled commodity.
The controller said that those eating such smuggled rice were damaging their systems.
He said some of the expired rice had been impounded by officers and men of the service and kept in the warehouses.
Importation of rice through the border stations was banned in April 2017.
Haruna said smuggling of rice had become so rampant that youths risked their lives on motorcycles carrying five to six bags each.
He said that other devices used included transporting between 35 to 50 bags in smaller trucks.
Haruna said there was no way one could get a good rice consignment with the appropriate price from the smugglers, except the ones brought through the seaports.
Haruna said: “For plastic rice, I am yet to come across plastic rice.”
To curb smuggling, he said that the service had intensified operations at various bonded terminals and warehouses to ensure compliance with the extant laws.
He said: “To this end, about six warehouses in Lagos that have contravened the laws are under customs seal and pending thorough investigation.”
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