SAHARA REPORTERS
Some lawless Operatives of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in a large smuggling network on Sunday night again smuggled more than 3000 cars into Lagos State, containing no fewer than 195,000 bags of rice.
Nigeria’s investigative journalist, Fisayo Soyombo, who made the revelation in a post on his verified social media handle on Monday said that the rice, which amounted to a total of at least 9,750,000kg, were smuggled by the NCS officers in Ogun State.
The investigative journalist who has recently been revealing the smuggling activities of the Nigerian Customs Service, said that the Customs officers smuggled the rice from Owode-Apa and Seme into Badagry via Gbaji Bridge for onward transfer to Lagos.
He wrote, “Over the night, your men in Ogun State let in more than 3000 cars containing smuggled rice from Owode-Apa and Seme into Badagry via Gbaji Bridge for onward transfer to Lagos.
“More than 3,000 cars! That’s at least 9,750,000 kg of rice (3,000 multiplied by 65 bags multiplied by 50kg) through the backdoor.
“Of what use then is the “high-level meeting to combat smuggling” (pictured) convened by your CGC and attended by many of your senior officers just four days ago? The deceit has to stop!”
SaharaReporters had reported last week that Soyombo had released videos confirming that the NCS between the night of Saturday, November 16 and early hours of Sunday, November 17, the Customs officers successfully smuggled over 2000 cars containing over 6,500,000kg of rice into Nigeria in trickles through Badagry, Lagos State.
Soyombo had said that the two videos he released with a statement on his social media handle on Monday, November were parts of a larger set recorded at various times between 2:30am and 4am on Sunday, saying that the videos are evidence of the flow of rice vehicles through Badagry.
He said that after a certain Customs checkpoint, more than 60 cars parked at a particular spot were noticeable.
SaharaReporters had reported that Soyombo had released videos to establish his smuggling allegations against the Nigerian Customs Service officers.
Fisayo had in a statement alleged that Nigerian customs officers had conspired with Adeyemi Habeeb Abdulganiy, an alleged multi-billionaire-naira smuggler better known as Abuga, to illegally pass about 2000 cars and smuggle in bags of rice into the country.
He said the illegal operation was slated to take place on Sunday, 10th of November, 2024.
However, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) National Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada, had told SaharaReporters that Fisayo’s claims were fictitious without providing counter-evidence.
He had said it was illogical for anyone to believe their personnel were involved in the illegal operation.
But in another post, Fisayo released two more videos to substantiate his smuggling allegations against the customs officers.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN SAHARA REPORTERS
