Says Imported Rice Poisonous
ABUJA: The Comptroller-General, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali has on Thursday, said that the Service has not issued any licence for rice importation into the country, noting that any rice not produced in Nigeria is smuggled.
Speaking at the quarterly press briefing of the Ministry of Finance in Abuja, the CG stated that Rice importation is one of the most biggest challenge facing the Nigerian Customs service today, an act which happens because Nigerians also consume these rice.
He said that they have done everything to educate Nigerians that this rice is poisonous, but people are still consuming this rice.
According to him, “We are making sure that the rice that comes into this country is validly processed and I must say that we have not issued a licence for the importation of rice so, any rice you see on the streets that is not produced in Nigeria is smuggled.
“If we stop buying this rice, certainly they will go out of business, so may I appeal to Nigerians that imported rice is poisonous”.
He further noted that there is no smuggler that is too big to be arrested, as they have in custody about three big smugglers with two already in court, adding that when they get conviction it will be made public.
“Let me assure you that there is no single entity that is above the law, rice smuggling is an issue that we have been trying to address and that is why we enlarged our task force specifically to fight rice smuggling especially within this season of fasting that is a celebration period and therefore the smugglers will bring in rice.
“There is no imported rice that has come into this country that has not spent a minimum of five years in the silo. Chemical must have been added to sustain its freshness and that chemical is harmful, also, they re-bag these rice and give it a new date and that’s what we consume here and when you end up with colon cancer you begin to wonder how did it happen, these are the causes of diseases”, he remarked.
The Customs boss faulted Nigerians for not cooperating with the Customs Service in exposing smugglers and appealed to Nigerians to patronise indigenous rice.
He said, “In all honesty, our people are not helping the matter, the issue is, if we expose these smugglers, if we assist customs because we know where these rice have been taken from…We have asked for assistance from people but up until today there is no private citizen that has walked to us to say, I have an information about rice and the only people giving us information are the rice millers.
“There is no information that they have given us that we have not worked on and I am surprised to hear that they have been giving information and we have not worked on it.
“May I appeal to Nigerians, please patronise our own indigenous rice, it’s available, it’s more nutritious and if you do that, you will assist customers by making sure that these people are put out of business”, he ended.
