The Nigerian Navy has intercepted 450 bags of smuggled parboiled rice from Cameroon valued at N8m.

The Navy also arrested three suspects alongside the contraband

The Commander of Nigerian Navy Ship Victory, Commodore Vincent Okeke, while handing over the contraband and the three suspects to the Nigeria Customs officials on Tuesday, told newsmen that the rice was smuggled through Cotonou.

He said,

“We are here to hand over yet another set of 450 bags of rice smuggled from Cameroon. The arrest was made on Sunday 19th of May. We are here with three suspects with Cotonou boats to hand them over to the Customs for investigations and prosecution.

“The street value of the rice is about N8m. But like I said during the previous hand over, the value is not so significant. Put side by side the impact of smuggling on our economy, you will know that we should not focus on the value of rice. We should focus on the impact of smuggling on our economy, impact on unemployment, impact on the revenue that is supposed to accrue to the Federal Government.”

He added that the Chief of Naval Staff, I. E. Ibas, has directed naval officials to strengthen their our anti-smuggling efforts.

He said,

“That is what we are doing now. The message to the smugglers is that we won’t give up. We will get them arrested, hand them over to customs and they will most likely end up in prison custody.

“Since my resumption, there has not been any challenge. The Chief of Naval Staff has provided us with enabling logistics for our operations. The motivation for the smugglers is pecuniary gains. It can’t be more than that. They bring it at reduced cost and make a profit. The arrest we have made has been traced to a particular name, one Mr. Emmanuel, a hotelier at Uyo. I want to believe that the customs will track and apprehend him. We are making efforts not only to ensure the reduction of crime in the maritime domain but also total elimination of crime.”

Assistant Comptroller of Customs, Eastern Marine Command, Johnson Gabriel, who took delivery of the contraband and the suspects, said Customs “will do our own investigations, prepare their case files and take the suspects to court.”

He added that previous suspects handed over to Customs are already on trial and in prison custody.

He said,

“We have a splendid synergy with the Nigerian Navy. At this period of Ramadan, there is a high rate of smuggling activities as the smugglers believe people will need rice for Ramadan and maybe Sallah. The Navy is doing everything to help us and we are intensifying our own efforts too.

“Our investigations indicated that the three people that came in that boat are not the real owners. The real owners or consignees are Cameroonians. They went to Cameroon and collected these items, some of them on credit with the hope of coming to sell in Nigeria and returning the proceeds to the owners in Cameroon. With the revelation by the Commander of NNS Victory about one Mr. Emmanuel, we will take it up from there and see how we can get him apprehended.”